History was created in the Kerala Assembly on Friday when Governor P Sathasivam asked the members of the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF to “sit quiet or leave the House” as they tried to disrupt his policy address on the first day of the Budget session. The Opposition boycotted the policy address.
Justice Sathasivam took both the Congress-led UDF Government and the Opposition off their guard when the left members began their bid to disrupt the policy speech by shouting slogans demanding resignation of the Cabinet of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy which is facing serious charges of corruption over the infamous solar and bar bribery scams.
“You have raised your point,” Sathasivam told Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan after he made a statement on the corruption charges against the Government and requested the Governor to take note of this. “You have to communicate it to the people. (But) you have to allow me to do my Constitutional duty. Either you sit quiet or you are free leave the House,” he said.
When the leftist MlAs persisted in their protests with slogans like ‘Resign, Resign Oommen Chandy’, the Governor said, “Beyond this nobody can tolerate. I think there is a limit. I have to do my Constitutional duty. I am aware that your protest is not against me but against the Government. Entire nation is watching you. People are watching your objections.”
Sources in the Assembly and senior journalists who have been covering the House proceedings for several decades said this was the first time in the history of the State Assembly a Governor had spoken like this to the Opposition. During similar occasions in the past, Governors used to cut short the address and place it on the table, an act by which it was taken as read.
When some Opposition members asked Sathasivam to table the speech instead of reading it out in entirety, he said, “I have full energy. I will read slowly. This is my Constitutional duty. Please read the Constitution. You have raised your democratic protest. You are opposing this Government. That is enough. I am noting all your objections.”
later, the Opposition walked out of the House accepting the advice of the Governor and sat on a dharna outside raising slogans against the Government. Achuthanandan said the Opposition had not shown any disrespect to the Governor. “We have nothing against the Governor. We respect him. Our protest is against this Government of champions of corruption,” he said.
Governor Sathasivam took more than two-and-a-half hours to complete his address in which he described the past five years of the UDF rule as Kerala’s golden era. “For Kerala, the last five years were a golden age of opportunities. It was an age when dreams came true,” he said enumerating the development projects the Congress-led Government had initiated.