THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition leader and speaker locked horns once again in the assembly over the latter’s refusal to expunge the financial fraud allegations levelled against the opposition leader by MLA P V Anwar.
Anwar had in fact raised financial fraud allegations against V D Satheesan during a discussion over a bill in the House on Wednesday. Since the speaker was not in the chair that time, it was ruled that the objections raised by the opposition against the allegations of Anwar would be looked into and a ruling would be announced later. It was K Babu who on Wednesday raised a point of order against the allegations raised by Anwar, without giving a notice in writing.
Speaker M B Rajesh on Thursday gave the opposition leader a chance to clarify his stand. Quoting Rule 285, the speaker said no allegation of a defamatory or incriminatory nature shall be made by a member against any person unless the member has given previous intimation, adding that oral information is also a form of information and “if the speaker is satisfied, that oral information is enough”. Such information received by the speaker needs to be passed only to ministers, he ruled.
However, the opposition leader questioned the speaker’s ruling by quoting the provisions of the same Rule 285. He said the rule was applicable to all members of the House. Satheesan said there was no truth in the allegations of Anwar that he had indulged in some money chain fraud case in the early 90s. He said the government was free to conduct any sort of investigation and termed the allegations baseless.
Despite repeated demands by the opposition leader, the speaker refused to expunge the allegations raised by Anwar from the assembly records. As the speaker refused to budge, former opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said if a previous ruling were what stops the speaker from expunging the remarks, then better the speaker overrule the previous ruling.
Shortly after the arguments over the allegations, the opposition staged a second walkout from the House protesting the government refusal to discuss over 650 amendments the opposition members recommended in the university laws (amendment) bills.
