Chennai: En masse suspension of DMK MLAs from the Assembly for a week is not the first such incident. A decade ago, all AIADMK members, excluding the then AIADMK leader, J. Jayalalithaa, was suspended from the House after a commotion on May 26, 2006. The then Speaker R. Avaudaiappan suspended the AIADMK members for the rest of the session after they clashed with Congress members.
Next day, Jayalalithaa who had decided to keep away from the Assembly proceedings turned up in the House and participated in the debate for over two hours. “DMK has no right to talk about democracy. On May 26, 2006, I had a wordy duel with the then Congress legislator C. Gnanasekaran when he made some remark about my party chief. But the then Speaker at the behest of DMK government suspended all the 60 AIADMK MLAs present in the Assembly for the rest of the session. Despite frequent disruption by the DMK members, Speaker Dhanapal has suspended them for only a week,” said two time MLA and AIADMK South Chennai North district secretary V. Kalairajan.
He said the AIADMK supremo had the courage to turn up in the Assembly very next day and spoke for over two hours despite repeated interruption by DMK ministers and Congress MLAs. “Nine members of DMK, including its chief M. Karunanidhi, can participate in the proceedings. Without crying foul, other DMK members should take part in the proceedings,” he said, noting that in 2006, suspended AIADMK MLAs were not even allowed to enter the secretariat complex whereas now DMK members were staging mock Assembly proceedings and dharna inside the Secretariat.
“It only shows that AIADMK was more liberal and democratic than previous DMK regime in handling opposition party,” he said. Political commentator Badri Seshadri said holding mock Assembly would not get political mileage for DMK which is at the receiving end. “Common people see the act such as Jayalalithaa alone going to the Assembly as an act of courage. Acts like mock Assembly will be simply ignored by people,” he said.
He said Karunanidhi was just too old to attend the session. He added that family controlled party like DMK would not allow the second rung leaders not suspended to hog the limelight by participating in the session.
