The government and the Opposition bitterly squared off over Wednesday’s attack on Opposition legislators in the Assembly allegedly by ruling front MLAs and watch and ward officials.
Both the fronts have also struck a seemingly intractable position on the legislative inviolability of Rule 50 notice, a bitingly contentious issue that has repeatedly disrupted the House.
The government has dismissed the UDF stance that the Opposition’s right to seek an adjournment debate on matters of public import was the Opposition’s inalienable Parliamentary privilege.
It held that the gravity of the subject determined the fate of such motions and not the Opposition’s political compulsions.
Several developments on Thursday signalled that both the fronts were dug in for a biting season of caustic political back-and-forth.
For one, a meeting chaired by Speaker A.N. Shamseer to make both the fronts meet halfway on both issues failed. Four UDF legislators resigned from Sabha TV managing committee, accusing the Assembly’s official broadcaster of occluding Opposition voices.
The UDF was annoyed that Mr. Shamseer was yet to rule on Wednesday’s incidents or take to task the front ruling legislators and watch and ward officials responsible for the alleged pre-meditated assault on Opposition MLAs.
The Opposition has accused the government of twisting the knife in “Wednesday’s injury” by arm-twisting the police to slap severe charges against UDF legislators while advantaging their alleged assaulters by booking them under lenient criminal law provisions.
The possibility of an early detente between both fronts appeared further diminished with Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan and Public Works Minister Mohammed Riyas feuding on the sidelines of the high-stakes political stand-off for the second consecutive day.
Their imputations appeared to border on the personal, with Mr. Satheesan implying that Mr. Riyas owed his Cabinet position to his father-in-law, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Mr. Riyas countered that Mr. Satheesan had scant support in the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) compared to senior leader Ramesh Chennithala.
CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan said Mr. Satheesan and KPCC president K. Sudhakaran have conspired to relegate the mutiny in their party to the backburner by unleashing anarchy in the Assembly to divert public attention from the Congress’s internal woes. “Seven MPs have expressed a lack of confidence in the party’s State leadership,” he said.
The government-Opposition stand-off in the Assembly also spilt into the street on Thursday, with the police discharging water cannons against Youth Congress protesters who attempted to storm the Secretariat.
