Sabarimala gold row: Oppn protest continues in Kerala Assembly for 4th day

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 9 (IANS) The Kerala Legislative Assembly witnessed another stormy session on Thursday as the Congress-led Opposition's protests over the gold plating controversy at Sabarimala disrupted proceedings for the fourth consecutive day.

Heated verbal exchanges between the Treasury and Opposition benches led to scenes of chaos, forcing the House to stall its business again.

Trouble began shortly after the day’s proceedings commenced, when Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan began speaking.

Soon, a sharp war of words broke out between him and the ruling front members, prompting the Speaker to intervene. Satheesan accused the Speaker of deploying watch-and-ward personnel to silence the Opposition and also raised the Chief Minister’s alleged “body shaming” remark in the House.

As tempers flared, Opposition legislators marched to the well of the House holding banners. The Speaker’s directive to the watch-and-ward staff to seize the banners only intensified the protest.

Opposition MLAs continued their demonstration in front of the Speaker’s chair, while the Speaker maintained that banners could not be displayed at the chair. Ruling party members then countered the Opposition’s attack.

State Minister of Excise M.B. Rajesh alleged that the Opposition had assaulted a woman staff member on Wednesday inside the Assembly and accused Satheesan of “leading hooliganism”.

He said the protest was aimed at deliberately blocking the Question Hour.

However, amidst the protests, the Speaker continued with the one-hour-long Question hour.

Minister K. B. Ganesh Kumar also joined the debate, criticising an INTUC leader’s participation in the agitation and alleging that he had not contributed anything to Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC).

Treasury bench MLA K.V. Sumesh termed the protest on the Sabarimala row “anti-democratic”, noting that the High Court had already appointed an SIT to investigate the issue.

With neither side backing down, the House was thrown into disorder once more, with Opposition protests continuing into Question Hour.

But, when the Assembly took up the zero hour, trouble broke out as the Opposition legislators tried in vain to reach the Speaker’s podium, and this forced him to adjourn the House for a while. Incidentally, with things likely to flare up again, the Assembly session may be wound up later in the day.

--IANS

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