Chennai: The Leader of Opposition and DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin and his party MLAs were evicted en masse from the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday after the House witnessed pandemonium over a remark made by an AIADMK MLA on Mr Stalin’s Namakku Nammae campaign ahead of the state assembly polls.
Immediately after their eviction, the Leader of the House and finance minister O. Pannerselvam moved a resolution seeking suspension of all the DMK MLAs for a week for continuously disrupting the Assembly proceedings. After a voice vote, Speaker
P. Dhanapal ordered their suspension amid loud sloganeering by DMK members who were resisting the eviction by marshals. Stalin, who was physically removed, staged a brief sit-in before being finally taken out of the House.
Interestingly, the initial bonhomie witnessed in the House between the ruling AIAMDK and the principal opposition DMK started withering as the Budget session progressed. After the DMK members present in the House blocked the proceedings, the Speaker for the first time ordered eviction of the opposition members by marshals.
Condemning the behaviour of the DMK members, the Speaker said since the DMK was not cooperating with the Chair in conducting the proceedings of the House smoothly, he was forced to order their eviction. He ordered adjournment of the House proceedings for the day and announced that IT minister R. Manikandan and Housing minister K. Radhakrishnan would give their replies to the discussion on the demands for grants for their departments on Thursday.
Trouble began when AIADMK member S. Gunasekaran, without naming Stalin, made snide remarks that those who bemoaned Namaku Naame could not capture power. His remark triggered a strong protest from DMK members who wanted the speaker to expunge them.
Mr Dhanapal, however, said the MLA had not made any pointed reference to anyone and therefore there was no need to expunge the remarks.
DMK Deputy Leader Duraimurugan argued that Namakku Naame was an initiative of Stalin and therefore the remarks refer only to him and sought their expunction.
At one point, Stalin himself rose and said he was proud that Namakku Naamme had featured in an Assembly debate. He also made some remarks about Chief Minister.
The DMK members then resumed their seats and the AIADMK legislator continued his speech. However, the Speaker ordered expunction of Stalin’s remark on the CM.
This led to a new round of protest by DMK members with Mr Stalin insisting that his remarks remain, which were later expunged by the Speaker. The DMK members stood up and opposed the Speaker's action even as Mr Dhanapal asked them to cooperate in the smooth conduct of the House. Since the DMK members did not heed his repeated pleas, he summoned the marshals to evict all the agitating MLAs.
Eviction was planned: Stalin
The Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin on Wednesday alleged that the eviction and suspension of the DMK MLAs was a planned action to prevent them from raising issues during the demand for debate on September 22 for grants to the Home Department, which is being handled by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.
Speaking to reporters outside the Assembly, he said the DMK was playing a proactive role in the Assembly by participating in debates. "We had staged walkouts on a few occasions when we had disagreements with the Speaker. But eventually we had returned to the House to take part in the debates. We acted true to our conscience," he said.
However, DMK leader said that every day the ruling party members and minister has made it a habit to make provocative remarks to force his party members to protest.
