CHENNAI: LEADER of the Opposition in the State Assembly MK Stalin on Thursday swore by rationalist leader and DMK founder Arignar Anna (CN Annadurai) to emphasise his point to Speaker P Dhanapal that his party members were attending the session every day to discharge their duty to the people and not to go out in the name of walk-outs.
“Anna meethu aanai (I swear by Anna), we come here to discharge our duty to the people. Even after staging a walkout to register our protests over issues, we return to the House at the earliest and take part in the proceedings”, Stalin said. Surprised at this, Speaker told Stalin that he need not do this to reiterate his point.
It all began during the question hour when AIADMK MLA Senthamangalam C Chandrasekaran referred to the previous day’s incident and said “opposition MLAs were not allowing the Assembly to function.”
This sparked an immediate protest from DMK members and Stalin pointed out an Assembly rule and said no accusations should be made during question hour.
On August 3, noisy scenes prevailed in the House when AIADMK MLA S Muthiah said “what if there are 89 scarecrows”. The Speaker refused to expunge the remark. On Thursday too, the DMK members were on their feet demanding the expunction of the remark. The Speaker dismissed the plea.
After many unfruitful attempts by the DMK members, Stalin in an emotional voice swore by Arignar Anna and made a fervent plea to the Speaker to expunge the remark. Minister for Electricity P Thangamani intervened and recalled a similar incident that took place during the previous DMK regime when the then Speaker refused to expunge a remark levelling murder charge against an AIADMK MLA. Thangamani’s recall restored calm in the House.