THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 12 session of the 15th Kerala legislative assembly began on a confrontational note, with the opposition UDF boycotting the question hour in protest.
The opposition expressed their protest over Speaker AN Shamseer’s decision to change 45 questions raised by them from starred to unstarred thereby giving a chance for the government to delay the response. The Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan announced the boycott decision and criticised the Speaker for curbing the right to ask questions.
Speaker AN Shamseer reminded the opposition about his discretionary powers to admit questions and ruled that the decision was taken because the questions were on local issues and based on rumours. He also clarified that the opposition flouted Rule 266 which mandated that questions should not be leaked outside before it was presented on the floor.
The Speaker cut the microphone of the opposition when they started asking about the gravity of a senior police officer in charge of law had a meeting with a RSS leader. Soon it became a war of words between Shamseer and Satheesan when the former asked the protesting members who all were the opposition leaders. Satheesan termed it an immature comment on the part of the Chair.
As the question hour resumed, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan criticised the Opposition Leader for setting a bad precedent by targeting the speaker. He also said that the government had nothing to hide and answers were always given.
The Opposition wanted to corner the government by raising the recent controversies Thrissur Pooram fiasco, ADGP-RSS meet, allegations surrounding police and the Chief Minister’s office, and allegations raised by the PV Anvar MLA.