Kerala Assembly Speaker A N Shamseer on Tuesday made a remark on Congress MLA Shafi Parambil during the House proceedings that created a controversy.
The remark came when opposition MLAs were protesting inside the state legislative assembly over the Brahmapuram waste plant fire.
The opposition gave an adjournment motion notice on the police action on the UDF legislators who were protesting against the Brahmaputra incident. The permission for adjournment notice was denied by the Speaker who said the issue was already discussed on Monday. This led to a protest by opposition MLAs in the house.
Speaker Shamseer was heard telling opposition MLAs Roji M John, T J Vinod, C R Mahesh and T J Saneesh Kumar that they won last time by a narrow margin. The speaker said, “You must also come here to the 16th Assembly. You won by a narrow margin, don’t spoil your image.
Then he goes on to say, “People are seeing this, Shafi, next time you will lose, you will lose there.”
Shafi, a third-time Palakkad MLA who was elected after defeating BJP’s E Sreedharan in 2021, said if he contests the elections it’s up to the people of Palakkad to decide his fate.
“First my party will decide whether I should contest next time or not. And if they decide to contest me then the people of Palakkad will decide whether I should win or not. We must tell the speaker that he should do his job properly with responsibility.”
Shafi said that instead of accepting the rights of the opposition in the Assembly, the speaker is following directions of the CM and his party.
“After I lose, who should win the Palakkad seat? The speaker should say what he meant by this. This is not something one should say who is sitting in the speaker’s chair. We are trying to bring difficulties faced by people of one area, and the breathing difficulty they are having.”
Shafi said, “The speaker and CPIM should not forget that. We did not destroy chairs, computers or microphones inside the Assembly. He is sitting in the speaker’s chair. He has the responsibility to protect the rights of the opposition but the speaker who is scared of Pinarayi Vijayan has become a failure as a speaker.”
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