Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) legislators boycotted question hour in the Assembly on Monday in protest against Speaker, P. Sreeramakrishnan’s decision to not suspend question hour. The Opposition had demanded the suspension of question hour in order to take up the adjournment motion.
As soon as the Speaker called the Food and Civil Supplies Minister P. Thilothoman to reply to the listed question for the day, UDF legislators led by Anwar Sadath were on their feet and started raising slogans. The Speaker’s request to cooperate with the question hour, to allow the Minister to complete the reply and to stick to Assembly practices was ignored.
Leader of Opposition, Ramesh Chennithala’s attempt to make a statement led to protest from the treasury benches and noisy scenes. “You cannot speak by stopping the Minister,” the Speaker reminded. Following this, UDF legislators rushed to the front row raising slogans and the Speaker’s appeal to them to return to the seats fell on deaf ears.
After the Minister completed his reply on paddy procurement, Mr. Chennithala, who spoke, demanded suspension of the question hour to take up the adjournment motion. The house witnessed noisy scenes again as the Speaker said the question hour cannot be suspended,
The UDF legislators rushed to the front row and to the Speaker’s podium raising slogans. Later, they engaged in verbal duel with the Speaker demanding suspension of the question hour.
The repeated appeal to return to the seats did not yield any result and the Speaker reminded them that the problem of farmers is being discussed and that the whole world is watching them.
“You cannot raise other issues during the question hour. The Opposition leader was given opportunity to talk and the issue raised by him is not connected with the question being asked”, he said.
As the Speaker continued with the proceedings, the Opposition UDF legislators displayed banner and shouted slogans before leaving the House.
