Chennai: The TN Assembly witnessed uproarious scenes when DMK member J. Anbalagan plunged the House into utter chaos - for a brief while - when he referred to former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa by her name.
Speaking on the motion of thanks to the governor for his address to the Assembly, Anbalagan on Friday commenced his speech claiming his DMK functioned “as an opposition party and not hostile” to anyone and remarked that the police could have averted action on the Marina protesters. Intervening, Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam said the member was suppressing facts on jallikattu. It was former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa who had raised the issue of lifting the ban on jallikattu in 2011 when she captured power.
“The present government which is treading the path shown by Amma (Jayalalithaa) has worked out a solution for holding the bull-taming sport perpetually. Soon, there will be glad tidings of a permanent solution,” he said. Speaker P. Dhanapal warned Anbalagan to confine his speech to the Governor's address and not to speak anything controversial.
But no sooner he resumed his speech than Anbalagan remarked that the government should have handed out a copy of the ordinance for jallikattu and explained it to the agitating students. Intervening again, Mr Panneerselvam said ordinance is passed when the Assembly is not sitting and it was valid for six months. His government promulgated the ordinance as per rules on Jan.21 and it the Assembly gave effect to it on Jan. 23, he said and charged that the agitation on Marina, though initially peaceful was hijacked by anti socials and divisive forces on the fourth day of agitation.
Contending that the Governor's address lacked major announcements, Anbalagan mentioning former CM Jayalalithaa's name said she had supported all the Central schemes. Immediately, the Treasury Benches took strong exception and shouted at him. DMK members too shouted in return and its leader M. K. Stalin sought to know what was wrong in referring to a former Chief Minister by her name. “The same Speaker had once ruled that it was not wrong to mention the name of DMK president because there were many former Chief Ministers,” he said. “But his (Anbalagan) utterance amounts to insulting,” said Mr Dhanapal.
