The proceedings of the State Assembly were stalled for about 20 minutes on Thursday, as DMK members staged a protest against Speaker P. Dhanapal’s refusal to expunge certain comments made by an AIADMK legislator in the House.
During the Question Hour, AIADMK MLA C. Chandrasekaran (Senthamangalam) claimed that the Opposition MLAs were stalling the Assembly proceedings, which was vehemently opposed by the DMK legislators. The DMK members were wearing a black tag as a mark of protest against an AIADMK MLA’s comment of “89 scarecrows” in the Assembly on Wednesday, which the DMK legislators interpreted to be a reference to their strength in the House.
Leader of the Opposition M.K. Stalin recalled Wednesday’s incidents and said if the comments made on Thursday by the Senthamangalam legislator were not expunged, they would be forced to create a similar situation on Thursday too. On Wednesday, vociferous protests by DMK MLAs forced the Speaker to end the Assembly session without the Electricity Minister P. Thangamani replying to the debate on demand for grants for his Departments.
Acknowledging the black badges worn by DMK members, Speaker P. Dhanapal said, “You are wearing badges for the incident happened yesterday. So leave it and cooperate to conduct the House”. As the DMK members were on their feet demanding to expunge the comments of the AIADMK MLA, the Chair contended the comments were not allegations and hence need not be expunged.
Soon, the Speaker turned to the ruling party MLAs and said everyone in the House should know that allegations should not be made during the Question Hour. Leader of the House and Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam too reiterated that none should make allegations during the Question Hour.
Mr. Stalin read out relevant parts from the House Rules and said since the comments made by the AIADMK MLA were allegations, they should be expunged. “Our intention is to cooperate with the Speaker to conduct the House. I swear on the name of Anna (former Chief Minister and founder of DMK C.N. Annadurai) that our intention is for smooth conduct of Assembly,” he said.
The situation in the House grew volatile as DMK members raised slogans against the Speaker, who maintained that the comments were not allegations but only referred to incidents in the House on Wednesday.
At this point, Electricity Minister P. Thangamani referred to an incident during the erstwhile DMK regime and said even for an issue relating to a murder the then Minister asked whether half an hour was to be wasted (on discussing it) and now the DMK members were wasting more time on certain comments made by an MLA. Thereafter the DMK didn’t press for expunging the comments.
