The Kerala Assembly session was adjourned on Thursday after a deadlock between the opposition and the ruling party continued over a clash in the house. Speaker AN Shamseer spoke about Wednesday’s incident and said, “Yesterday’s incident was unfortunate and it would not have happened.” The speaker sought the cooperation of the opposition to conduct the session, but due to the continuous ruckus, the assembly was adjourned.
Earlier in the day, the speaker called an all-party meeting to discuss yesterday’s issue.
According to sources, a war of words occurred in the all-party meeting between Kerala Pinarayi CM Vijayan and the opposition leader.
Meanwhile, VD Satheesan, Leader of the Opposition, said, “The Kerala government feels it is inconvenient to talk about the issues that we raise. The CM denied the opportunity for an adjournment motion; he was saying that he will choose the subjects, which is very unfortunate.”
“We also demanded action against two CPI(M) MLAs and the deputy chief marshal of the watch and ward for attacking our MLAs for assaulting the UDF MLAs while staging a protest outside the office of the Speaker on 15 March, Satheesan added.
“MLAs who were injured were H. Salam and Sachin Dev, and one of our MLAs, Mrs. Rema, and her husband were brutally attacked by CPIM. One MLA attacked her physically, and her hand is broken. So how can we cooperate with them when they are denying our rights? That is the question,” Satheesan alleged.
LoP further said, “An adjournment motion notice in the Assembly was given by the Opposition to discuss the attack against women on the floor of the assembly as it is a serious matter.”
“We have gone through the statistics, and the violence against women is increasing day by day,” he added. “Our four MLAs who were on the managing committee of Sabha TV have decided to resign, as Sabha TV is only for the ruling party. They are not showing our protest in the assembly,” LoP said.
Earlier on Wednesday, opposition leaders in Kerala staged a protest in front of Speaker Shamseer’s office inside the Assembly complex, alleging that he was protecting their rights in the House. Opposition legislators raised slogans and held up a banner saying “The speaker should show justice’. They staged a walkout from the House and marched to the Speaker’s office in the same complex.
“We have boycotted the assembly, and now we are protesting outside the speaker’s office,” an opposition legislator said. The legislators also clashed with the Watch and Ward personnel outside the Speaker’s office. The eighth session of the 15 legislative assembly of Kerala began on 23 January and is scheduled to end on 30 March.