Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 7 (PTI) The Kerala Assembly was adjourned for the day on Monday after a protest on the floor of the House following an intense verbal duel between Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan.
Raising slogans against the CM, members of the opposition UDF allegedly climbed the podium of Speaker A N Shamseer and held up a banner, preventing the House from seeing his face. This prompted Vijayan to condemn the opposition’s actions.
As the protest and sloganeering escalated, and the Congress-led UDF members were reluctant to return to their seats despite repeated requests, the Speaker adjourned the House for the day.
The government decision to discuss the opposition’s adjournment notice regarding the controversial remarks allegedly made by the Chief Minister about Malappuram was withdrawn.
The second day of the session commenced on a stormy note with the enraged opposition expressing displeasure to Speaker Shamseer over the altering of 49 starred questions into non-starred ones.
After boycotting the question hour, the opposition members came back to the House just before the beginning of the zero hour.
The noisy scenes began once again after the Leader of Opposition (LoP) Satheesan tried to respond to the remarks made by the CM and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M B Rajesh against him in his absence.
The LoP questioned the Speaker’s decision to expunge his remarks from the House records and the Sabha TV while retaining those made by the CM and the Minister against him.
Later, the House witnessed an intense verbal duel between CM Vijayan and LoP Satheesan as both traded charges against each other.
The parliamentary affairs minister also tried to justify his comments said against the LoP.
Following this, angry opposition members staged a protest in the House, prompting the Speaker to suspend the other listed businesses and adjourn the House for the day.
However, Sabha TV, the Assembly broadcaster, didn’t air the visuals of the protest.
The opposition later walked out of the House holding the banner and raising slogans against the government.
Satheesan told media that ‘unfortunate’ events happened in the House. A large number of starred questions submitted by the opposition related to the interests of the country and the state were converted as unstarred ones.
He alleged that an official in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) came to the Legislative Secretariat to change the status of questions.
Reacting to the alleged acts, including the expunging of remarks from the Assembly records and cutting out his speech by Sabha TV, the Leader of the Opposition also claimed that the Chief Minister was acting like a ‘fascist’ and trying to emulate Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Addressing reporters in the newsroom, Law Minister P Rajeeve rejected the opposition charges and said the UDF members deliberately created ruckus in the house to avoid the scheduled discussion on Malappuram in the House.
“They expected that there would be a normal adjournment motion and they could continue with their lies outside for their political gains,” he said.
But the government took a stand to discuss the issue on the floor of the House to stop creating anymore misunderstandings and division in society over the issue, the minister added. PTI LGK ROH
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