Kerala Assembly adjourned for day after furore over starred questions, graft jibe against CM

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 7 (IANS) On the first day of the new session of the Kerala Assembly it was all-round chaos right from the Question Hour on Monday morning and after 90 minutes of acrimony, the House was adjourned for the day.

On different occasions during the session, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan slammed one another and things went out of hand when angry Opposition members took on Speaker A.N. Shamseer and reached his chamber, leading to the Watch and Ward staff putting up a stiff resistance.

The Opposition was up in arms when the session began, questioning the arbitrary decision of Speaker Shamseer to unstar the starred questions of the Opposition and the Speaker said there was nothing wrong in it.

Soon Satheesan stood up and slammed Shamseer terming him as one of the worst-ever Speakers the Assembly has seen, leading to strong protests from the Treasury Benches.

CM Vijayan strongly expressed his displeasure and slammed Satheesan terming him as an immature Leader of Opposition.

Satheesan by then had led the entire Opposition out of the House.

Soon after the Question Hour time got over, the Opposition returned and their demand for an adjournment motion was decided to be taken up for discussion at 12 noon.

However, soon trouble started again as the Opposition raised a banner stating that CM Vijayan was acting as an agent of the RSS.

Things went out of control when the Opposition and Treasury Benches were engaged in shouting against each other.

Matters turned worse when Satheesan said his only prayers daily were that he should not become corrupt like CM Vijayan, who is one of the most corrupt CMs the state has ever seen.

The CM then hit back by saying that the people of Kerala know who Vijayan is and who Satheesan is.

With the pleas of the Speaker falling on deaf ears, he ran through the listed business of the day in a flash and the session came to a close.

“Incidentally when things went out of control the Sabha TV (the TV agency of the Kerala Assembly) stopped the relay and what irked the Opposition was Satheesan’s speech was cut out but Vijayan’s speech was shown. We will continue to fight for the rights of the Opposition,” said Congress legislator P.C. Vishnunath.