Tamil Nadu: Monsoon Session Ends With a Walk Out and Eviction

Chennai: A forceful eviction of AIADMK members and a walkout by BJP representatives marked the proceeding on the final day of the three-day monsoon session of the State Assembly that was adjourned on Wednesday after the passing of a few Bills, including one on amending the State's Motor Vehicles Act that evoked some initial protest from a few allies of the DMK.

The AIADMK members had sat down on the floor near the seat of the Leader of the Opposition protesting against the Speaker’s repeated refusal to accede to their demand for recognizing the nomination of R B Udhayakumar as the deputy leader of the opposition by the party general council and the expulsion of O Panneerselvam from the AIADMK for anti-party activities.

Panneerselvam said that the dispute over his removal was still in court and the final order had not yet come on the matter and Speaker M Appavu maintained that he would go only by the rules. Appavu said that Panneerselvam had been elected to the House on the AIADMK’s symbol.

But AIADMK members raised the issue of not providing Udhayakumar the seat next to Panneerselvam (the leader of the opposition and the deputy leader of opposition sit in a single sofa next to each other) after question hour on Wednesday and tried to besiege the Speaker when he refused to accede to their demand.

Raising slogans like ‘Save Democracy’ and ‘Save dignity of the Assembly,’ AIADMK members created a ruckus, claiming that they had raised the demand through 10 letters between July, 2022, and October, 2023, forcing the Speaker to order their eviction from the House.

When they persisted in slogan shouting, refusing to leave the hall, the watch and ward staff was called to remove them from the scene. Many members were bundled out of the Assembly though some of them walked out.

After going to their chambers, the AIADMK members came out and raised slogans outside the Assembly hall, which prompted the Speaker to say that they had come with a determination to create trouble. He said that he did not want to interfere in the internal affairs of the opposition party.

He would go only by the rules and recalled that the rules were not bent even for M Karunanidhi during the AIADMK regime. The DMK had then placed a demand to provide space in the floor of the house for the wheelchair of Karunanidhi and it was refused.

Also the Speaker recalled the disqualification of 18 members of the AIADMK for seeking the Governor’s intervention in changing the party’s legislative leader in the previous government and said that there were so many factions of the opposition party now.

What was the guarantee that the various factions of the AIADMK would not unite one day if they were told to do so, he asked, wondering what would happen if the Governor united them by making them shake hands.

But the Leader of the Opposition, Edappadi K Palaniswami, addressing media persons outside the House, said the Speaker had not recognized the expulsion of three members of the party for anti-party activities. He pointed out that they had been deprived of a deputy leader while the 18-member Congress legislative party had been given one.

He accused the Speaker of functioning in a partial manner by not allowing him to speak on the floor of the House. The Speaker was not getting replies for the opposition members’ questions from the Ministers concerned or the Chief Minister even if they were prepared to answer them, he said.

The Speaker was supposed to be impartial and raise above political affiliations but Appavu was functioning like a DMK supporter, which had brought down the dignity of the House, he said.

BJP member Vanathi Srinivasan, too, spoke to the media after staging a walk out along with the three other members of her party after she was not allowed to speak on the call attention motion that she had moved. When he started to speak on the issue relating to the release of Muslim prisoners, the Speaker refused to let her continue.

She told the media that the proposal to release those jailed for bomb blasts in Coimbatore had caused tremors in her city. While the DMK claimed that a party explosion was caused by a gas cylinder, the National Investigation Agency had attributed it to ISIS, she said.

She had moved the call attention motion to give voice to the Hindus but was not allowed to speak, she alleged and said that the release of Muslim prisoners would affect the peace and harmony in Coimbatore.