The Assembly Speaker sent word saying I should meet him. Did I do something wrong?

 

"The Speaker is calling you," a staff member from the Speaker's office came and informed me. I was sitting in the media gallery of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly. This was in 1989. What was my mistake? How had I erred?

From the very beginning of my career in 1988, I was asked to cover the assembly proceedings. Everything was new. I did not know the MLAs by name. I did not know which party they belonged to. The only thing that was clear was that those in the treasury benches were legislators belonging to the ruling party. On the opposite side, the leader of the opposition and main opposition party MLAs sit. The legislators belonging to the other parties have a seating arrangement, and this too is on the other side of the treasury benches.

There was nothing that I knew about assembly coverage. But thanks to my seniors in the profession, I gradually understood. All of them represented other newspapers, English, Telugu, Urdu and Hindi. If I had to learn something, I had to learn only from them. That was because only one chair was allotted to one newspaper in the media gallery. There was no additional chair for another representative from my newspaper.

I would have questions aplenty. However, while the proceedings were on, it would not be the right thing to turn to other reporters from the other newspapers and ask them questions and get my doubts clarified. They were all friendly, no doubt, but they also had to pay constant attention to the proceedings. There was live coverage on TV at that time. It was introduced some years later. So you could not miss a word, a sentence, the context and the exact meaning of what was being spoken in the assembly.

I was 20 years old and was just out of college having done my B Com from Badruka College at Kachiguda. But all the subjects being discussed in the assembly were new to me.

This was the case with every new reporter who was deputed to cover the assembly. They had to learn on the job. My case was slightly different. I worked for an evening newspaper. I had to rush to the office with the reports and the newspaper would hit the stands by 3.30 pm or so. So what happened in the assembly in the morning had to be reported without any mistakes the very same day.

It also had to be done quickly. There had to be no mistakes. Period.

Speaker G Narayana Rao, by his very look, appeared to be a strict man. His disposition was also like that. He was elected to the assembly in the 1985 elections on a TDP ticket and was elected Speaker. Narayana Rao knew his job. He knew it thoroughly. He knew the powers of the Speaker. Only his word mattered on the assembly premises.

So, why did this person from the Speaker's office come to the media gallery and tell me that I had to meet the Speaker? I could not ask him. I did not want to. If the Speaker asked you to come, you had to go.

If the Speaker exercised his powers, one could be jailed. In March 1989, the assembly passed a resolution sentencing 32 Youth Congress workers to imprisonment. The Youth Congress workers had entered the assembly premises unauthorisedly. There was commotion. They were sentenced to undergo 30 days imprisonment. This was challenged. The matter went to the Supreme Court, which directed that the Youth Congress workers be released. They had already spent 29 days in jail by then. They were released. The SC ruling was not acceptable to the Speaker. It was a constitutional question about the powers of the assembly. Narayana Rao got the released Youth Congress workers sent to jail again. So, they had to go to jail for one more day to complete the 30-day jail term they had been given.

Now, what had I done that on this particular day, the Speaker had sent word that I had to see him? The only time I saw him was before I entered the profession as a journalist. I had gone to attend a function and he was also there. This function, I remember, was at Keyes High School in Secunderabad. There was an exhibition and he was going around the stalls. That was the only time I saw him, and from a distance. I had not even spoken to him.

Even after I became a journalist and started covering the assembly, there was no occasion for me to meet the Speaker. The situation never arose. Then what happened today? Why did he want to see me? This was beyond my comprehension.

In any case, I got down the stairs from the media gallery, went out of the door, walked towards the main entry. This is from where MLAs, ministers and officials entered. We, as media, could also enter through the same door if we were 'covering the lobby'. This 'covering the lobby' is about reporting what was happening in the corridors, the interactions, formal or informal, between MLAs or ministers, or engaging in a conversation with anyone. That also gave you access to the chambers of the Chief Minister, the leader of the opposition and leaders of all parties. I would go there only occasionally, but most of the time it was always rushing out of the media gallery straight to the office and reporting on the proceedings that took place until that afternoon.

As I walked towards the main entry of the assembly building, history flashed through my mind. In 1983, the legislative council took objection to a headline that appeared in Eenadu. The council summoned Eenadu's Ramoji Rao to appear before it. The council wanted to reprimand him and therefore asked that he appear before it personally. Syed Mukhasheer Shah was the chairman of the council at the time. The Congress had a majority in the upper house and Mukhasheer Shah of the Congress was the chairman. The issue went to the Supreme Court as Ramoji Rao did not want to appear before the council.

I was no Ramoji Rao. I was Sushil Rao.

There was no way I could refuse to go to the Speaker as I had been asked to. Should I have called my office at that time to inform them about this? The thought did not strike me. Moreover, I knew I was careful with my reporting. I would make sure I got all the facts right. I would also read the other newspapers the next day to check if I had got anything wrong. As a matter of fact, since most newspapers carried assembly reports, I got to do much more comprehensive reporting.

Then what was the problem? What was I getting into?

As mentioned earlier, G Narayana Rao was a stern-looking person. When he occupied the Speaker's chair, it was clear that he would run the house as per rules. No one could speak back to him. No one could even remark that he favoured the ruling party. During any discussion or debate, the leader of the house, that is the Chief Minister, could rise to say what he wanted to. Whoever was speaking at that time would have to remain seated until the leader of the house had said what he wanted to.

In fact, such was the atmosphere that even the leader of the opposition, as a convention, got the same importance as the leader of the house. M Baga Reddy of the Congress was leader of the opposition and he commanded the respect of everyone in the house. If the leader of the opposition wanted to intervene during any discussion, the Speaker would invariably permit him, showing the respect the leader of the opposition deserved.

On one occasion, when the leader of the house, that is the Chief Minister, got up to intervene, Narayana Rao firmly asked N T Rama Rao to be seated. Respecting the chair and its authority, NTR sat down until the Speaker permitted him to speak.

If that is how Speaker G Narayana Rao functioned in the house, exercising complete authority, pray why was I being called to his chamber?

I reached the Speaker's chamber. There were some chairs in front of the chamber. I was told that the Speaker had been informed that I had come. I remained seated. Was there an issue with me? Or was there an issue with the newspaper? If it was an issue with the newspaper, it should have been taken up directly with the newspaper. I waited for some time. But I had a job to do. The assembly was in session with a panel Speaker in the chair. The Speaker himself was in his chamber. My immediate concern was that I had to report the assembly proceedings. I had to rush back to the office with my reports and the edition would be out by 3.30 pm or so as I mentioned earlier.

Who could I ask why I had been called to the Speaker's chamber? Some officials went in and came out. Some more went in. They also came out. I wondered what was happening. I sat there waiting to be called. The way the staff member had come to me in the media gallery, it was as if the matter was most urgent, because no sooner had I sat in the chair than he came and told me I had to go to the Speaker's chamber.

I sat there. I think I sat there for half an hour. I watched the staff who kept coming in and going out. The one who had come to me earlier in the media gallery and told me that I had to meet the speaker came to me finally. "You can go," he said. "The speaker has asked me to convey to you that you do not have to meet him," he told me.

Then why was I called? I never got to know. I never asked.