Uproar in Kerala Assembly over Sabarimala gold row, UDF stages boycott

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 8 (PTI) Kerala Assembly witnessed a massive uproar on Wednesday as opposition UDF members, who have been protesting seeking the resignation of the Devaswom minister over the Sabarimala gold-plating row, engaged in a scuffle with watch-and-ward personnel and boycotted the House proceedings later.

The opposition announced in the Assembly in the morning that they would not cooperate with the House proceedings until Minister V N Vasavan resigns over alleged irregularities linked to the reduced weight of gold-plated coverings on 'Dwarapalaka' idols at the Lord Ayyappa temple.

The unruly scenes began when the Congress-led UDF legislators, who were protesting in the well of the House with placards and a banner, tried to barge into the Speaker's podium, and the watch-and-ward personnel blocked them.

Seeing the scuffle between the opposition MLAs and the guards, the members of the treasury benches, including Minister Saji Cheriyan, rushed to the well and engaged in heated arguments with the UDF members.

The scuffle broke out when General Education Minister V Sivankutty was speaking during the question hour.

In his address, Sivankutty expressed strong displeasure over the opposition protest in front of the Speaker's podium and the raising of a banner, thus blocking him from seeing the members.

As the uproar continued, Speaker A N Shamseer cancelled the question hour midway and temporarily stopped the proceedings.

When the session resumed after some time, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan said it was not the first time that the opposition had staged a protest in the House, but deploying watch-and-ward guards to handle them was not usual.

The LoP accused Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of deliberately "provoking" the protesting opposition legislators and alleged that Ministers Saji Cheriyan and Mohammed Riyas were the ones who first trooped to the well of the House during their protest.

However, Speaker Shamseer objected to his remarks and said the ministers didn't do so.

Visibly upset over it, Satheesan accused Shamseer of "lying" and announced that the UDF is boycotting the further proceedings of the House.

With the opposition members marching out of the House, Parliamentary Affairs Minister M B Rajesh made a scathing attack against them and said the boycott was part of their pre-planned agenda.

Countering the LoP's allegation that it was the CM who provoked them, Rajesh said Satheesan sent UDF members A P Anil Kumar and T Siddique to "attack" Vijayan in the House.

Terming the incident as "unprecedented", he claimed that the ruling benches did nothing to provoke the opposition.

He also accused the LoP of using Thrikkakara MLA Uma Thomas, who is still under treatment after recovering from a major accident, as a "human shield" during the protest at the well of the House.

CM Vijayan also vehemently criticised the continuing protests staged by the UDF in the House over the Sabarimala row.

He said the opposition could have raised the matter as an adjournment motion, submission or call for attention in the House, but they didn't, as they were scared of facts.

He also questioned the UDF's demand for a CBI probe into the allegations and said there was "politics" behind it.

The veteran further said watch and ward personnel were harmless people, but they were seen pushed and manhandled by some opposition members.

Even in the absence of the UDF opposition, the House took up other businesses listed for the day.

The Kerala High Court on Monday directed the formation of an SIT to investigate alleged irregularities related to the reduced weight of gold-clad copper plates of the guardian deity idols at Sabarimala. The weight reduction was revealed during the proceedings in court in connection with the claddings being again sent for gold-plating this year, but without informing the High Court.

During the proceedings, it was found that when the claddings were last taken out of the Lord Ayyappa shrine for gold-plating in 2019, there was a reduction in their weight by around 4.5 kg, which had not been reported by the Devaswom officials.

Last week, the court had ordered a comprehensive inventory of all valuables, including gold, at the Sabarimala temple under the supervision of retired Justice K T Sankaran. PTI LGK KH