Cong-led oppn protests in Kerala Assembly continues

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Uproarious scenes continued in the Kerala Assembly on Monday also as the Congress-led UDF demanded immediate action against the marshals and ruling LDF legislators who had allegedly attacked their MLAs in the House complex.

Following this, Speaker A.N. Shamseer briefly adjourned the session.

The Congress-led opposition in Kerala is on a warpath against the manner in which their democratic rights in the Assembly have been curtailed by the "autocratic style" of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. On Monday, there seems to be no respite as the opposition slammed Vijayan, leading to more chaos.

Normal proceedings in the House have been stalled since March 15, and the Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan on Monday said things have reached a point of no return because of the attitude of Vijayan.

"False cases have been registered against seven of our legislators, including two women. This is being done by the Chief Minister to escape from answering crucial questions that's pointed towards him. He is doing just the same thing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing. We all saw how police reached the house of Rahul Gandhi. The same thing is happening here too," said Satheesan.

In the past two days that the Assembly functioned, the day's proceedings got over in 15 and nine minutes, and on Monday, Satheesan said they were expecting some sort of discussion to end the impasse, but nothing has taken place.

Soon after Satheesan's brief speech on Monday, Speaker A.N. Shamseer went forward with the Question hour and the entire opposition trooped into the well of the House and started sloganeering.

After 30 minutes, Shamseer said the House is going to be adjourned briefly as proceedings cannot go on like this and called for a meeting of the business advisory committee of the Assembly.

The opposition has said they are ready to cooperate, but their genuine rights have to be allowed which includes their right to seek leave for moving adjournment motions, which has been denied by the Speaker.