As the Sabarimala issue is boiling and various leaders are expressing their stands on the issue, Kerala CM said that ever since the September 28 verdict of the Supreme Court allowed all the women to pray at the Lord Ayyappa shrine, the protests in the state showed “who was Chennithala’s leader. It is not Rahul Gandhi, but Amit Shah”.
This reply came in the wake of an accusation made by Mr Chennithala that RSS leader Valsan Thillenkary has been given a free hand to run the show on the hallowed 18 steps of Sabarimala temple last month.
These conversations soon turned into a brawl thus forcing the Speaker to wrap up the business in less than half an hour.
At the beginning of the question hour, Mr Chennithala said “Congress would cooperate with Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan, but announced that three of its legislators would commence an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Assembly’s main door to protest the CM Vijayan government’s callous attitude by refusing the party’s demands in Sabarimala town, where they had been pressing for an end to prohibitory orders.”
Vijayan immediately slammed him by saying that there was no difference between the saffron brigade and the Congress. “While the Bharatiya Janata Party was stationed in front of the state secretariat, you have started it here. This clearly shows the relation you have with the BJP/RSS.”
“One cannot cheat all the people all the time and now you have been exposed, as you have become the closest buddy of RSS,” said Mr Vijayan.
To which, Mr Chennithala replied: “Everyone saw how RSS leader Valsan Thillenkary was controlling things standing at the hallowed 18 steps of Sabarimala temple in November.”
These statements further aggravated the leaders in the Assembly and there was a turmoil and forced Speaker to adjourn the house within just 21 minutes.
This was a repeat of last week, when for three days in a row, the assembly ended in chaos. The Congress-led opposition’s kept repeating its demand of suspension of the question hour allowing adjournment to discuss the “poor facilities” and an end to the prohibitory orders in Sabarimala, which were refused everyday by the Speaker.
Also read: Kerala to build a “Women’s Wall”to stop the “madness” in Sabarimala