His Praja Rajyam Party might have been a flop at the electoral box office in Andhra Pradesh, but film star Chiranjeevi turned out to be a big hit in the state assembly on Thursday, delivering his maiden speech that left the other members seriously thinking.
The Praja Rajyam Party leader made his debut as MLA on Thursday when he got up to deliver a customary speech to congratulate Kiran Kumar Reddy of Congress on his election as the Speaker, but ended up making a memorable and hard-hitting speech ruing the wastage of public money and precious time of the assembly on non-serious issues.
Though what he said evoked some laughter and eased the tension of the House, it also left a few others shocked as the actor-turned-politician said the behaviour of some of the legislators in the House was worse than that of college students.
What provoked the actor-turned-politician to deliver the hard hitting address were the heated exchanges between the treasury and the Opposition benches in the morning over the choice of Kiran Kumar Reddy for the Speaker's post.
Trouble was sparked off when a senior member of Telugu Desam Party Ashok Gajapati Raju raised the issue of the region and the caste-balance in choosing the persons for the key posts. "The status of the Speaker is equal to that of Leader of the House. Both the Leader of the House Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and the Speaker Kiran Kumar Reddy belong to the same community and the same region of Rayala Seema," he said, evoking a loud protest from the Opposition.
Taking strong objection to the remarks of Gajapati Raju, Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy said that even the leader of the opposition N Chandrababu Naidu belongs to the same Rayala Seema region but the Congress never objected to it.
Referring to these heated arguments, Chiranjeevi said, "It had become so hot in the House that I thought AC had stopped working."
Pointing out that crores of rupees were spent on running the House every day, and even a second in the House cost thousands of rupees, Chiranjeevi regretted that the money and the time of the House was being wasted.
"I had heard that the state assembly is a holy temple. Today I have seen it," Chiranjeevi said. "It is called temple because the people have sent all of us here to discuss their problems. That is why so much public money is spent here and people have given this opportunity to us," he added.
Recollecting his first day in the House on Wednesday, Chiranjeevi said he was pleasantly surprised to see members meeting cordially and moving around in a friendly manner.
"When I told this to the media, they told me that I had not seen anything yet. They said I will see the reality later. I thought later means may be after one month or after a year. I never thought that I will see it on the very second day".
"If there is a consciousness in each of us that the people are watching us, we will not go in to these unnecessary arguments. It looks as if everybody here has forgotten people, our status and the responsibilities. We are behaving like school students, not even college students because college students will have some maturity. Not all of us but some of us are behaving like the mischievous children. We are taking every thing personally," he said.
He also had a word of advice for the newly-elected Speaker. "Give more opportunity and time to the Opposition because ruling party members have their own limitations and compulsions. They can't raise all the issues. The Opposition can do it fearlessly and without hesitation."
Chiranjeevi said that the ruling party and the Opposition were like two eyes, two wheels of a vehicle. "You can drive the vehicle only if you look after them equally," he said.
He said that he supported Kiran Reddy's candidature for the post of Speaker in the spirit of consensus not because of any proposal of Congress party.
Recalling that Kiran was a Ranji cricketer, Chiranjeevi said he will have sportsman spirit. "Don't be a bowler, don't be a batsman," he told Kiran Reddy, who was the wicket keeper of Hyderabad team in Ranji. "If you want, you can be wicket keeper some time. But be an umpire who does justice to both the sides," he said.
A courteous Chiranjeevi later told senior members of the House that he be forgiven if he had gone overboard in his first speech. But the resounding thumping of desks at the end of his speech from all sides indicated that Chiranjeevi was a hit in his first show in the assembly.
