CHENNAI: Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin on Thursday accused the AIADMK MLAs of turning the Assembly into a place for sycophancy and utilising the House to praise AIADMK general secretary V.K. Sasikala who is not a member of the House. The AIADMK members are ruining the democratic traditions of the Assembly by their praise of a person who is controlling the administration from outside, he charged. Members are mentioning the word 'Chinnamma' to appreciate a person who had not obtained people's recognition, Stalin added.
He also charged Speaker P. Dhanapal with allowing such a conduct of the AIADMK members and functioning in an autocratic manner. However, the DMK working president absolved Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam saying that he is under some kind of pressure to ignore such a conduct.
Writing in party organ 'Murasoli', Stalin said the DMK is supporting measures like jallikattu and Neet laws as it wanted to be on the side of Tamils. The party is not failing to raise its voice against anti-people or anti-democratic actions. When former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa was alive, the AIADMK members mentioned the DMK president M. Karunanidhi by name and the Speaker allowed it saying that the names of former Chief Minister could be mentioned since there are many former Chief Ministers. But, when the name of Jayalalithaa was mentioned, ruling party members opposed it, Stalin said and the rules differ every day for every party.
When the DMK opposed praising of a person who is not a member of the Assembly, the Speaker gives a ruling that parties could praise their leaders. Though, DMK members respect their leader, they had not diverted the Assembly activities and turned to sycophancy, ignoring people's issues. Stalin recalled an incident when he pulled up his own party member for praising him and asked him to come to the subject. He asserted that the DMK would continue to follow the same democratic traditions. Stalin also complained that ordinary statements of DMK members criticising the government are removed from Assembly records. If there is no place for constructive debate in the Assembly, the DMK would function in people's court to expose the anti-democratic regime, he said.
