Making out a strong case for live telecast of Assembly proceedings, Leader of the Opposition M. K. Stalin said here on Thursday that only then people would know who was at fault.
Addressing a meeting organised by the party to condemn the suspension of DMK MLAs from the Assembly, Mr. Stalin alleged that disruptions in proceedings happened not over people's issues but on demands for either retention or deletion of certain observations made by members from both sides from the Assembly records.
As Leader of the Opposition, he said, he had made it clear in the beginning itself that the DMK would not conduct itself as an enemy but as an opposition party. However, it was not possible in the present Assembly for the opposition to raise people's issues. Hence, the government should take steps to telecast the proceedings live like some of the neighbouring States.
The DMK members participated in the sessions earnestly but the treasury benches conspired to provoke them, he claimed. The Speaker, P. Dhanapal, was repeatedly trying to create an impression that the DMK members were creating a situation only to stage a walkout. Since the AIADMK Ministers were not able to respond when issues were raised by the opposition, its MLAs instigated the DMK members with certain remarks. Mr. Stalin asserted that walking out was a democratic right but DMK MLAs always returned to the House after staging a walkout.
He claimed that well laid-out procedures were not followed while evicting or suspending DMK MLAs from the House on August 17.
Instead of reading out the names individually and warning them, the Speaker followed what was read out by the Leader of the House. In contrast, the late P. T. R. Palanivel Rajan was a model Speaker, he said.
Recalling the sequence of events that happened from August 17, Mr. Stalin claimed that the government did not want the opposition to be present when the demand for grants for the police department was tabled by the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, on August 22. Though Ms. Jayalalithaa claimed that Tamil Nadu remained a haven of peace, the unprecedented presence of police force on the Secretariat complex was proof enough of the law and order situation in the State. Madurai Central MLA P. T. R. P. Thiagarajan alleged that the suspension of DMK MLAs was a planned conspiracy. Those who addressed the meeting included former Minister I. Periyasamy and P. Moorthy, MLA.
