Thiruvananthapuram: The Sabarimala issue rocked the Assembly for the third consecutive day on Friday with the proceedings ending in about 20 minutes.
While the Opposition alleged that Speaker Sreeramakrishnan was denying them their basic rights to raise the Sabarimala issues, the speaker said that enough discussions had been held in the House on the matter.
As question hour began at 9 a.m., Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala demanded that the House should either discuss the Sabarimala issue by suspending the question hour or it should take up the adjournment motion on the lack of amenities for the pilgrims.
The speaker declined the demand for suspending question-hour and said that the adjournment notice had raised no new issues. “Several hours of the House were spent on Sabarimala on Wednesday,” he said.
As the speaker went ahead with the question hour, UDF MLAs trooped to the well of the House, raised placards and banners in front of the speaker’s dais and shouted slogans demanding the withdrawal of prohibitory orders at Sabarimala and providing basic amenities. Some UDF members, including Anil Akkara, Eldhose Kunnappally, T.V. Ibrahim and Anwar Sadath, tried to climb the speaker’s dais.
Though the speaker warned that the Opposition was breaching the limits and offered to give it time to raise the Sabarimala issue as a submission, the Opposition continued the disruption. Subsequently, the speaker rushed through the remaining proceedings and adjourned the House for the day. It will meet on Monday.
Later, addressing a press conference, Mr Chennithala alleged that the speaker was acting as per the instructions of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and denying the basic rights of the Opposition to raise genuine issues in the House. He also said that the speaker had no moral right to condemn the Opposition’s protest in the House as the LDF MLAs, including Mr Sreeramakrishnan, in the previous Assembly had literally went on the rampage on the speaker’s dais.
He rejected the claim of the speaker that the Sabarimala matter was already raised in the House and hence it could not be allowed again. In the previous Assembly, the then Opposition LDF had given notice for adjournment motions on the solar scam and bar bribery for about ten times or more, he said.
Reacting to the allegations, the speaker said that he could allow the rights only by following the norms of the House. Moreover, it was not proper to suspend the question hour as lots of other issues concerning the people needed to be discussed. “Sabarimala is indeed a serious one. But that is not the only issue in the state. Other topics also need to be discussed and hence there was no justification for the Opposition’s demand to suspend question hour,” he said.
The speaker also denied the allegation that he was showing favouritism in the House.
