Kerala Assembly violence: CM says its 'Blackday' for House

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Friday slammed the CPI-(M)-led LDF for the ugly scenes in the Assembly during the budget presentation, terming it as "blackday" in the history of the House. The opposition action was against democratic norms, and "disgraceful", he told reporters at the media room of the assembly after the House was adjourned following the uproar.

"It is the government's right to present the budget. There will be administrative stalemate leading to chaos if the budget is not presented. This is against all democratic norms," Chandy said.

The visuals of the unruly scenes, aired by the media, would give the people an opportunity to judge whether the LDF action of trying to prevent a majority government from presenting the budget was correct or not, he said.

Describing the action of some MLAs as 'serious', Chandy said the future course of action against them will be decided later."Ruling UDF will be meeting to chalk out its future course of action," he said.

Read: Kerala Finance Minister spends night in state Assembly as opposition lays siege

Chandy said UDF members had acted in a 'highly restrained' manner despite the provocation. He said LDF members became ‘wild’ as their attempt to prevent Finance Minister K M Mani from entering the House failed and they then tried to prevent the Speaker N Sakthan from entering.

"That is why they attacked the podium of the speaker and destroyed the equipment," he said.

Opposition leader, V S Achutanandan charged that no assembly procedures were followed in the presentation of the budget. Alleging that watch and ward staff had "brutally beaten up" protesting opposition MLAs, he said at least 20 members were injured in the melee.

Accusing UDF MLAs, M A Wahid, Shivadasan Nair and Dominic Presentation of leading the attack against opposition members, Achuthanandan alleged that while Nair hit Jameela Prakasam, Presentation addressed her by her caste name.