Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 22 (PTI) Leader of Opposition in the Kerala assembly V D Satheesan on Thursday urged Speaker A N Shamseer to expunge from the House record the “derogatory” remarks and allegations made against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi by three ministers of the ruling CPI(M).
Ministers M B Rajesh, V Sivankutty and Veena George alleged during the House proceedings in the morning that the Congress and Sonia Gandhi were involved in the Sabarimala gold loss as the prime accused in the case, Unnikrishnan Potty, had visited her residence and taken photographs with her.
Sivankutty also demanded that Sonia Gandhi be arrested and interrogated, and her residence be raided to recover the lost gold.
In his letter to Shamseer, Satheesan contended that, as per the rules of procedure of the assembly, no defamatory or incriminating allegations should be made against anyone without prior notice to the Speaker.
The allegations also have to be supported with proof, more so when the allegations are made against someone outside the assembly, he claimed.
Satheesan said that there have been several rulings in this regard from the Chair in the past.
He claimed that in violation of the rules and the rulings, the ministers levelled baseless allegations against Sonia Gandhi, who has “a clean political life” spanning decades and has led “a selfless public life”.
The opposition leader contended that the ministers’ remarks were a serious breach of discipline and not in line with parliamentary etiquette.
He requested the Speaker to take steps to remove the remarks against Sonia Gandhi from the assembly records, avoid broadcasting visuals of the same on the House TV channel and strictly instruct the ministers not to repeat the same.
The Sabarimala gold loss cases relate to the alleged misappropriation of the precious metal from the Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols and Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum) door frames at the Lord Ayyappa temple.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the cases has arrested 12 persons, including Potty and two former presidents of the Travancore Devaswom Board in connection with the matter. PTI HMP ROH
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