The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Walkout over money deal

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Thursday, Jun 28, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Walkout over money deal

Special Correspondent

Opposition protests against refusal to allow discussion on the issue

Decision of a party, and not the Government, says Speaker
Oommen Chandy questions rationale of not initiating legal proceedings

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Government found itself in deep embarrassment in the Assembly on Wednesday when the Opposition UDF raised the controversy surrounding ‘acceptance’ of Rs. 1 crore grease money by a functionary of the CPI(M) organ Deshabhimani.

Try as hard as they may, the Treasury benches could not thwart the Opposition bid to raise the issue during zero hour and Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy had his say on the matter before leading a walkout from the House.

The original Opposition bid was to seek adjournment of the proceedings to discuss the issue, but Speaker K. Radhakrishnan ruled that that matter did not merit such serious consideration, as it pertained to the action of an individual and the decision of a political party and not the Government.

Although the Speaker offered to allow V.D. Satheesan (Congress) and others to raise the issue in the form of a submission, Mr. Chandy was quick on his feet questioning the Chair’s decision, and he held on, despite repeated intervention from the Government side, arguing why the matter merited a detailed discussion in the House.

His contention was that rather than a mere allegation, the issue involved a proven case as indicated by the CPI(M) State secretariat’s decision to expel from the party and remove K. Venugopal as Deshabhimani’s deputy gen eral manager.

The Chief Minister and the Home Minister were privy to the decision, but still no legal proceedings were initiated against the person concerned, he pointed out.

P. Jayarajan (CPI-M) tried to block Mr. Chandy’s bid to go into the details of the issue by questioning the rationale of a matter of hearsay on the floor of the House when Rule 52 of the Rules of the Procedures of the Kerala Assembly did not permit it.

The Speaker concurred with him and repeatedly requested the Opposition leader to cooperate, but Mr. Chandy insisted on completing what he had begun saying.

He said the relevance of the matter for the House lay in the Government’s failure to accord sanction under Section 45 and 58 of the RBI Act. The CPI(M) State secretariat decision to expel Mr. Venugopal from the party was not as prompt as was being made out by the CPI(M) members. The action came months after the matter was investigated by Inspector-General of Police T.P. Senkumar.

Although he had filed an FIR before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ernakulam, it was not accepted on the ground that the stipulations laid down in the RBI Act had not been complied with.

In the absence of State Government nod, the police should have obtained the go-ahead from the RBI.

It was, therefore, clear that the money was taken for the top brass of the CPI(M), the Opposition leader said and announced the Opposition walkout to protest against the Government’s refusal to allow even a mention of the issue in the House.

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