Members of the Opposition walked out of the Assembly on Tuesday for denying leave for an adjournment motion about Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s alleged refusal to receive a complaint given by the wife of Minister for Forests K.B. Ganesh Kumar about domestic violence and the concern of women on his stance on such issues.
A. Pradeep Kumar (CPI-M), who gave notice for the motion, said the Opposition had never intended to discuss the family dispute of Mr. Ganesh Kumar in the Assembly and it was the revelations of Chief Whip P.C. George in the wake of a newspaper report and a series of incidents that occurred subsequently which forced the Opposition to seek a clarification on the issue.
Ganesh’s stance
Mr. Ganesh Kumar had said that those involved in the Nelliampathy issue had conspired against him and Mr. George said that Mr. Chandy had suppressed the complaint.
The Chief Minister should clarify if he had got any complaint and if the revelations of Mr. George were baseless. Action should be taken against him, Mr. Pradeep Kumar said.
Chandy explains
Mr. Chandy said the Minister’s wife had met him and discussed certain family matters, but no complaint was given and hence he could not take action.
Culture Minister K.C. Joseph said that this was unprecedented and such issues should not be discussed in the Assembly.
Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan said there were media reports about the Minister’s wife and her father giving a complaint to Mr. Chandy.
The observations of Mr.George were even more serious.
Mr. Chandy then said that the Minister’s father-in-law had died long ago, and he read out a letter written by the Minister’s wife saying that she had seen media reports about the letter and some of them had even “quoted” from the letter.
She had said that the reports were baseless.
Speaker G. Karthikeyan, citing rules and precedent, said the adjournment motion could not be admitted on the basis of media reports, but he permitted to raise it as Mr. Chandy consented to give a reply.
Based on the Chief Minister’s reply, Mr. Karthikeyan refused to grant leave and the Opposition members walked out in protest.
