Stalin calls Speaker ‘one-sided umpire’

Accusing Speaker P Dhanapal of acting like an “one sided umpire”, who, he claimed, had allotted substantial time to ruling party MLAs to talk in praise of their leaders. “When we drew the Chair’s attention to the unceasing eulogising, the Speaker offered a strange concession saying, we could also speak in praise of our leader,” he said. 

Criticising that the ministers were wasting time on showering encomiums on people not present in the House instead of answering governance related queries, the Leader of Opposition said that his party had extended unequivocal support to NEET and jallikattu legislations even without questioning the nature of the Bills to advance public interest and uphold the sanctity of the House. 

Stalin stated that the ruling party had not engaged them even when they had sought to know the status of projects like Global Investors Meet announced and launched by former chief minister J Jayalalithaa. He said the ruling dispensation had chanted the word “Chinnamma” and eulogised their bosses making a mockery of democracy in the House. 

Claiming that they would invest time in praising their leader Karunanidhi, who had been elected to the Assembly a record 13 times and had done a lot to the people at the appropriate place and time, Stalin, in his letter to the cadre, said their leader had not taught them to sidestep public welfare and invest time on praising political bosses in the historic State Legislative Assembly. 

Justifying that he has issued the statement to throw light on the autocratic attitude of the Speaker and undemocratic functioning of the ruling party MLAs, the Opposition Leader said that even the Chief Minister, who has to reign in his members, was maintaining silence owing to some ‘external’ pressure. 

Urging his cadre to pull up their socks, Stalin said they should take it to people’s assembly if the Legislative Assembly was no place for healthy debates. Significantly, Stalin’s critique of the just concluded session comes at a time when the general perception of observers of the House proceedings was that there was better cooperation between the ruling and opposition and they did more fruitful business compared to the recent years when ridiculing the opposition topped the agenda of the ruling dispensation.