Alleging that democratic norms were given the go-by in the Assembly, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president M. Karunanidhi on Sunday said the State government was making policy decisions without any proper debate in the House.
There was no consultation within the Cabinet or with alliance partners, he said.
Criticising schemes of the DMK government, attacking him and paying encomiums to Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had become prerequisites for a member to speak in the Assembly, Mr. Karunanidhi said.
“There will be no space for those who are not ready to follow these prerequisites. That is why the DMK members were evicted from the House and not allowed to perform their democratic duties. Thus, they have evicted democracy from the Assembly,” Mr Karunanidhi said in a statement.
He said by deciding to discard the new Secretariat and to run the government from Fort St George without consulting the Cabinet and alliance partners, the AIADMK government had given up democracy even before the commencement of the Assembly session.
Mr Karunanidhi said that in a similar manner, an amendment was brought in to give up the uniform syllabus in schools without an elaborate debate in the Assembly, despite the opposition from the Communist parties.
He said if the AIADMK government was concerned about democratic norms, new taxes to the tune of Rs 4000 crore should have been announced in the budget and not earlier.
Mr Karunanidhi said the present regime had also abrogated the DMK government's decision to celebrate Tamil New Year on the first day of Tamil month Thai instead of Chithirai without any debate.
