The Assembly witnessed noisy scenes on Thursday over the Twitter spat that preceded Sunanda Pushkar's death and alleged links of an agent of Pakistan’s ISI with Union Minister, Shashi Tharoor.
The proceedings were disrupted for some time during the question hour as the Opposition legislators tried to raise the issue and the treasury benches opposing it.
The issue figured in the House after the Home and Vigilance Minister, Ramesh Chennithala replied that Internal Security Wing of the Police was closely monitoring the twitter and facebook accounts to a question on the reports of ISI activities in the State.
James Mathew dragged Sunanda Pushkar’s name while raising the supplementary. The Congress legislators opposed it and Speaker, G. Karthikeyan quipped “Can the legislators ask anything?”. The opposition legislators opposed it leading to heated arguments. The Speaker then allowed to go ahead the question and asked the Home Minister to reply.
Mr. Chennithala said the government has reports of financial assistance from Pakistan reaching the hands of those accused in the Kashmir recruitment case. “In the other case referred in the House by the member, we have only media reports with us”, he said.
Mr. Mathew, in his second question, asked how the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Mr. Tharoor who had figured in the twitter spat had been made a spokesperson of Congress. The Congress legislators led by K. Muraleedharan took objection to this question and soon the Opposition and the Ruling front legislators were on their feet engaging in heated arguments.
Intervening, the Speaker told the House that it is an internal matter of a political party and that it cannot be discussed in the House. The party and High Command decides on the spokesperson, Mr. Karthikeyan said amidst the noisy scenes.
The House witnessed noisy scenes again as M. Chandran raised the issue to the displeasure of the ruling front. The Home Minister said Central agencies were being alerted on issues relating to internal security that comes up in the face book and twitter. On Mr. Tharoor, he said the government has only media reports. Following this, the Speaker went ahead with the listed proceedings.
