The long-simmering palmolein import controversy erupted in the Assembly on the opening day of its month-long session on Monday with the Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) members staging demonstrations within and outside the House asking Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and government Chief Whip P.C. George to step down in the wake of the developments relating to the case over the last few days.
Accusing the Chief Minister and the Chief Whip of having hatched a conspiracy to pressurise the Vigilance special judge, who had ordered continued investigation against Mr. Chandy in the palmolein import case, forcing him to recuse himself from hearing the case, the Opposition trooped into the well of the House causing a one-and-a-half-hour-long disruption of the proceedings. Even after the House resumed its sitting, the business listed for the day had to be rushed through on account of Opposition sloganeering from the well of the House.
Rebuttal
Rebutting the Opposition charges, the Chief Minister said that neither he nor the government had at any point of time made any criticism of the judge's order. The United Democratic Front (UDF) government had allowed the case to proceed smoothly. It had not even tried to change the public prosecutor appointed by the LDF government to handle the case. As for Mr. George's letter, he had himself made it clear that the government did not agree with it. If there was any evidence against him (Mr. Chandy) in the case, the LDF could have made him an accused when the charge sheet was filed when it was in government. What it had done instead was to make him the 23{+r}{+d} witness. The prosecution case itself was that the State had sustained losses on account of the import of palmolein keeping the Finance Department in the dark, he pointed out.
Opposition charge
Leading the LDF charge, Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan and his deputy, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, accused Mr. Chandy of having tried to scuttle the Vigilance probe at every available opportunity, the latest being the verbal attack on the Vigilance special judge. Seeking leave for an adjournment motion on the subject, Mr. Balakrishnan accused the UDF government of having politicised the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to save the Chief Minister.
Mr. Balakrishnan charged Mr. George with having tried to intimidate the judiciary with his letter against the special judge's decision to the President, the Governor, and the Chief Justice. Pointing out that there were five specific charges against the judge in Mr. George's letter, he demanded to know how the judiciary could function freely if it were to face such threats.
Mr. Achuthanandan, who traced the course of events in the case, demanded to know how Mr. Chandy could claim that he was unaware of the various developments relating to the palmolein import by the 1991-96 Karunakaran government given the fact that as Finance Minister, he was kept posted on every decision and when he had himself endorsed the note that the Cabinet had approved.
After some lively exchanges between the Chief Minister and Mr. Balakrishnan, the Opposition members moved into the well of the House when Mr. Achuthanandan insisted on a response from the Chief Minister to his several questions and Speaker G. Karthikeyan disallowed Mr. Chandy from answering the questions as he had still not disposed of the notice for the adjournment motion. When the Opposition members refused to heed his pleas, the Chair announced at 10.47 a.m. that the House was being adjourned for some time. Although he held discussions with the government and Opposition leaders on the stalemate, they could not arrive at a consensus. As a result, when the Assembly reassembled at 12.21 p.m., the Opposition members once again moved into the well of the House raising slogans forcing an abrupt end to the proceedings.
