THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Assembly witnessed an uproar on the first day of its fifth session on Tuesday after opposition members disrupted proceedings demanding the resignation of electricity minister M M Mani over his controversial remarks against Pembilai Orumai.
Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan later announced that the session was adjourned for the day. The day's sitting was temporarily adjourned earlier on Tuesday morning after opposition members stormed the well of the House, but the speaker was later forced to adjourn the session for the day after the opposition's protests drowned out the proceedings.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan tried to justify MM Mani’s action, saying his method of speech was rustic in nature. He also alleged that the opposition was trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. Hitting out at the RSS, CM Vijayan alleged that the organisation had even used children to plot murders in the State.
Pinarayi Vijayan told the Assembly that when a child joins RSS, neither his humanity nor his cultural consciousness gets enhanced. ''The biggest allegation is that it drains out his humanity,'' Vijayan said while replying to questions by MLA John Fernandez about RSS activities in Kerala.
Vijayan accused the RSS leadership of training its cadre to organise and conduct attacks and alleged that, on occasion, RSS men set up camps to organise such atrocities. He also said the intent behind a Kasargod madrasa teacher’s murder in March was to unleash communal riots. ''The murderers did not have any enmity toward the victim. So the intention was clearly to trigger communal riots,'' Vijayan said.
The government would seriously consider adopting measures to curb the practice of using places like schools and religious institutions for weapons training, he said. ''The different levels of RSS leadership are responsible. They also have several safe houses in Kerala and outside for hiding the culprits,'' he alleged.
Incidentally, the question regarding RSS activities was also the first of the fifth session of the 14th Kerala Assembly which began on Tuesday.