THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Falling in a trap created by himself through the inept handling of a sensitive issue, Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb became a classic example for making a mess over the transfer of the head of Cotton Hill Govt HSS for Girls here, as he failed to handle agitated Opposition members in the Assembly on Wednesday. Even as the day’s discussions on Demand for Grants were mainly listed for the Education Department, the Minister found himself on a sticky wicket after a statement read out by him on the topic blaming the HSS principal for everything landed him in more trouble, leading to fierce protests by the Opposition and an adjournment for the first time in the ongoing session of the House.
Countering V Sivan Kutty of the CPM, who had lashed out at the Minister through a submission during Zero Hour for retaliatory measures initiated against the principal of the school, Abdu Rabb stuck to his gun and justified the transfer of the principal, citing that she was found ‘inefficient’ to run a school in a model way. His charge was that the school principal had failed to address the arrival of a ‘VIP’ for a function, which was none other than himself, in a deserving manner.
The Minister’s stand that the original recommendation was to suspend the principal, but on humanitarian grounds she was only transferred to another school, infuriated the Opposition members who rushed to the Speaker’s podium with protests.
The statement of the Minister came after Sivankutty reminded that the lady, belonging to a Scheduled Caste community, is a cancer patient and has only a year left for retirement from service.
The manner in which the Education Minister addressed the Opposition clamour didn’t find favour with even many MLAs in the Treasury Benches or his Cabinet colleagues, going by the meek defence put up for him in the House and outside.
Many of them maintained in private that the Minister has cut a sorry figure on the whole issue. The issue is likely to crop up again when the House assembles on Thursday, as the Opposition is keen to derive maximum political mileage out of it. The Opposition has charged that the Minister’s action was a mad measure borne from a communal mind, thereby giving a different touch to the issue, in which, ruling front members will have limitations to interfere.