Five Left legislators suspended in Kerala

Thiruvanthapuram, March 16: The Kerala assembly on Monday passed a resolution moved by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy suspending five Left legislators for the rest of the session for unruly conduct on Friday. The five are E.P. Jayarajan, K.T. Jaleel, K. Ajith, V. Sivan Kutty and K. Kunhammad. The assembly witnessed unruly scenes on Friday as Left members broke the speaker’s chair and the electronic equipment on his desk to register their protest against Fince Minister K.M. Mani, who they did not want to present the budget, calling him corrupt. On Monday, when the session started, everything appeared calm. After the hour-long question hour ended, speaker N. Sakthan said Friday’s events in and outside the assembly made everyone hand their heads in shame. He then invited various party leaders for a discussion.

After two hours, the house reconvened. Chandy announced that it had been decided to suspend the five Left legislators. “In a democracy everyone has a right to protest but it has to be done within limits of civility and decency,” he said.  A furious V.S. Achuthandan, the opposition leader and a former chief minister, condemned the arbitrary attitude of the speaker and the government in going ahead with the decision. “We disagree with this one-sided action. Why is that you did not take any action against your legislators who outraged the modesty of five lady legislators that day? “We had warned that the situation will be tough if you allow Mani to present the budget... The two people who are responsible for this are Mani and Chandy,” he said. (ians)