While senior citizens of Tamil Nadu will shed tears and lament the shameful conduct of the State Assembly which has a glorious record in the past, those below the age of 30 years will only wonder whether serious proceedings were ever held in the House, except for 10 years during the DMK rule. Tamil Nadu Assembly had witnessed lively debates, sharp and witty exchanges between Treasury and Opposition benches but bonhomie at personal levels among members of all political parties. There are several instances when some opposition party member made very angry and provocative remarks, the Treasury benches cooling down the agitated mood of the House by making witty remarks and vice versa. Arignar Anna and Kalaignar on many occasions had made such lively interventions to bring the House to order and conduct the proceedings with all seriousness and purpose. For instance, immediately after the DMK assumed power in 1967, during the proceedings of the Assembly on a day Congress member K.Vinayagam winding up his speech angrily remarked at the ruling party, “Your days are numbered”. Anna instantly stood up and coolly said “My steps are measured”, the word ‘measure’ having more than one meaning. The entire House including Vinayagm merrily enjoyed Anna’s timely punch and pun. Gone are those days of purposeful and cultured conduct of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, except for ten years between 1996 and 2001 and 2006 and 2011 in the last nearly four decades.
Since the advent of the ADMK, the cultural degeneration that pervaded politics and society in the State penetrated into the Assembly also. The lumpen culture, which was somewhat under check during the late MGR’s time manifested in full ugly form ever since Jayalalitha assumed the mantle. Defiance of rules and norms of the House by the ADMK members turned into the rule and norm of their conduct in the House.
Jayalalitha adopts two sets of conduct for her party members, one while the ADMK is in power and another where it is in the opposition. The entire nation was a witness to the unruly behaviour of ADMK MPs in both Houses of Parliament and her MLAs during the DMK rule. Recently in the Rajya Sabha, her members menacingly moved towards the seat of the presiding officer, raised slogans and one ADMK member, a physician by profession, V.Maithreyan pulled out two mikes from the table of the Chairman and broke them. Just two days later when DMK members in the TN Assembly protested against unnecessarily provocative remarks of an ADMK minister, the Speaker called it a ‘misconduct’ and orders their eviction. Under the ADMK regime, even raising the hands by opposition members, the posture of their sitting and the manner in which their tongues moved are ‘offences’ inviting punishment from the Chair on the signal of their ‘revered’ leader.
The modus operandi and modus vivendi of ADMK minions being singing paeans for their Amma and abusing the DMK and Kalaignar, their legislators and minister vie with each other to outperform their colleagues and House of People to discuss their problems and find solutions is being reduced to a bhajan mutt. Both ADMK members and ministers waste much of the precious time of the Assembly in praising their leader and the rest of the time in cursing the DMK. And the ‘convent-educated’ lady aspiring for Prime Minister post is seen enjoying the whole tamasha.
To add fervour to the speech of a member, there is no harm in adding some praise for his/her leader, but if it becomes the whole it becomes repulsive for civilised opinion. Even during question-answer sessions, the ADMK members and ministers while away most of the time in praising their leader and come to the point in one sentence or one word. For instance, an ADMK member praised the Chief Minister for five minutes and asked whether a veterinary subcentre would be set up in his constituency. While replying the minister concerned also kept praising the CM for five minutes and then said the veterinary substation could not be sanctioned. For this negative reply why should there be so much build-up and waste of time of the House? But there is no place for such sensible and rational questions in Jayalalitha’s Assembly. Whenever ADMK comes to power ghost writers with ‘expertise’ in the art of praising Jaya from all over the state invade Chennai and set up their camps in some particular lodges in and around Royapettah to avail themselves for hire to ADMK legislators and ministers. This absurd and ridiculous practice is going on with the full ‘blessings’ of their megalomaniac leader.
If only the speeches and ‘contributions’ of ADMK MLAs and ministers are printed verbatim as appearing in the minutes of the Assembly and circulated among the people of their constituencies they will teach fitting lessons to them. The dailies like ‘Dinamani’ and ‘The New Indian Express’, which go out of the way to placate Jayalalitha, can also be challenged to publish the speeches of the ADMK legislators and ministers verbatim and ‘improve’ the image of their publications. Those ‘highly informed’ columnists and apologists who project Jayalalitha can also be challenged to sit through the entire proceedings of a session of the Tamil Nadu Assembly now and objectively write review in their columns.
What is enacted during the sessions of the Assembly during the ADMK regime is tragicomedy containing elements of both comedy and tragedy, the above said conduct of the ADMK benches providing the comedy elements and the fate of decency, decorum, culture and democracy taking the tragic turn.
No member of the opposition parties, particularly of the DMK, can complete a sentence of his/her speech, if at all they were permitted by the Chair, without interruption by ministers and MLAs of the ruling party and ‘B’ team parties of the ADMK. If the minutes of the proceedings which are published in due course are perused, it can be noted that many words of sentences and some sentences as whole in the speeches of DMK legislators are expunged by the Speaker, whose only mandate is to throttle the voice of opposition and refuse to heed to their pleas and ‘rule’ in favour of the treasury benches. Ruthless and senseless application of guillotine for any call attention motion given notice of by DMK members is the norm of the Assembly under ADMK seize. For instance, when the DMK legislative party leader M.K.Stalin gave notice for taking up the issue of the arrest of a senior doctor for requesting the CM and her securities to remove their footwear while entering into the internsive care unit of Apollo hospital, Chennai when she went to visit ‘Daily Thanthi’ owner Sivanthi Adityan admitted there in critical condition, the Speaker refused permission to speak on the issue which had agitated the minds of doctors and lawyers all over the State and their protest actions not permitted by the police. For three consecutive days he was refused permission to raise the issue of public importance.
On the same day (April 3), DMK member Dr. Pushpaleela Alban delivered her maiden speech participating in the debate on grants for Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal department. It is a norm that maiden speeches of new members are not interrupted unnecessarily. But violation of norm being the norm of ADMK, the ruling party members could not digest the woman member listing the measures introduced by Kalaignar to make the Nutritious Meal scheme really and materially nutritious. She also listed the schemes introduced by the DMK rule for women’s progress, which was also constantly intervened by the ministers by turn. At this point, Minister Valarmathi (notorious for her crude remark in the Assembly during the first tenure of Jayalalitha, that her leader did not ascend to power by showing the picture of a male corpse with only under garment in the waist lying upside down- meaning the assassinated body of Rajiv Gandhi) rose up and alleged that the DMK leader called the meals scheme as beggar’s scheme. Immediately Stalin objected to the remark of the minister. Another ADMK member permitted to speak and a minister asserted that there was evidence for the allegation. In the subsequent exchanges between Stalin and ministers, the Speaker expunged the words used by Stalin. When he asked for the evidence for what the ministers had mentioned, even as the nonplussed ministers blinked at each other, the Speaker ruled that he would verify from the House records and then decide about expunging the words used by ministers, and thus came to their rescue.
If any person on the road is asked whether there was any connection between nutritious meals and the TESO conference organised in New Delhi on Eelam Tamils issue, he would certainly rubbish the idea. But under Jayalalitha’s regime, her minister can invent a connection between the two and will go on record in the Assembly. That is what the same ‘queen over the tongue’ as Valarmathi is called, did while replying to the debate on the grants for Social Welfare and Nutritious meals department. Her low level, derogatory and vulgarised reference was objected to by DMK members. Pacifying them Stalin stood up and told the Chair that members were sitting to listen to the reply of the minister to the points raised by them during the debate and her unnecessary reference to TESO meet should be deleted from the records. The Speaker gave s strange ruling that the minister did not speak derogatively about anybody. The two more ministers harped on the same subject when Stalin asked who defended the killing of Eelam Tamils by the Lankan army and wanted Prabhakaran to be arrested and brought to India for trial. Unable to reply the ministers, parrot like, repeated the same points. As the Speaker pulled up the DMK members without restraining provocative speeches of ministers, they had to walkout.
The above said was only an instance on a particular day and the House is conducted in the same anti-democratic and useless manner on all days by the ADMK regime, reducing the Assembly to a farce and tragicomedy. An appeal to the people of India- Beware of the talks of the minions and apologists of Jayalalitha as Prime Minister of country.
Since the advent of the ADMK, the cultural degeneration that pervaded politics and society in the State penetrated into the Assembly also. The lumpen culture, which was somewhat under check during the late MGR’s time manifested in full ugly form ever since Jayalalitha assumed the mantle. Defiance of rules and norms of the House by the ADMK members turned into the rule and norm of their conduct in the House.
Jayalalitha adopts two sets of conduct for her party members, one while the ADMK is in power and another where it is in the opposition. The entire nation was a witness to the unruly behaviour of ADMK MPs in both Houses of Parliament and her MLAs during the DMK rule. Recently in the Rajya Sabha, her members menacingly moved towards the seat of the presiding officer, raised slogans and one ADMK member, a physician by profession, V.Maithreyan pulled out two mikes from the table of the Chairman and broke them. Just two days later when DMK members in the TN Assembly protested against unnecessarily provocative remarks of an ADMK minister, the Speaker called it a ‘misconduct’ and orders their eviction. Under the ADMK regime, even raising the hands by opposition members, the posture of their sitting and the manner in which their tongues moved are ‘offences’ inviting punishment from the Chair on the signal of their ‘revered’ leader.
The modus operandi and modus vivendi of ADMK minions being singing paeans for their Amma and abusing the DMK and Kalaignar, their legislators and minister vie with each other to outperform their colleagues and House of People to discuss their problems and find solutions is being reduced to a bhajan mutt. Both ADMK members and ministers waste much of the precious time of the Assembly in praising their leader and the rest of the time in cursing the DMK. And the ‘convent-educated’ lady aspiring for Prime Minister post is seen enjoying the whole tamasha.
To add fervour to the speech of a member, there is no harm in adding some praise for his/her leader, but if it becomes the whole it becomes repulsive for civilised opinion. Even during question-answer sessions, the ADMK members and ministers while away most of the time in praising their leader and come to the point in one sentence or one word. For instance, an ADMK member praised the Chief Minister for five minutes and asked whether a veterinary subcentre would be set up in his constituency. While replying the minister concerned also kept praising the CM for five minutes and then said the veterinary substation could not be sanctioned. For this negative reply why should there be so much build-up and waste of time of the House? But there is no place for such sensible and rational questions in Jayalalitha’s Assembly. Whenever ADMK comes to power ghost writers with ‘expertise’ in the art of praising Jaya from all over the state invade Chennai and set up their camps in some particular lodges in and around Royapettah to avail themselves for hire to ADMK legislators and ministers. This absurd and ridiculous practice is going on with the full ‘blessings’ of their megalomaniac leader.
If only the speeches and ‘contributions’ of ADMK MLAs and ministers are printed verbatim as appearing in the minutes of the Assembly and circulated among the people of their constituencies they will teach fitting lessons to them. The dailies like ‘Dinamani’ and ‘The New Indian Express’, which go out of the way to placate Jayalalitha, can also be challenged to publish the speeches of the ADMK legislators and ministers verbatim and ‘improve’ the image of their publications. Those ‘highly informed’ columnists and apologists who project Jayalalitha can also be challenged to sit through the entire proceedings of a session of the Tamil Nadu Assembly now and objectively write review in their columns.
What is enacted during the sessions of the Assembly during the ADMK regime is tragicomedy containing elements of both comedy and tragedy, the above said conduct of the ADMK benches providing the comedy elements and the fate of decency, decorum, culture and democracy taking the tragic turn.
No member of the opposition parties, particularly of the DMK, can complete a sentence of his/her speech, if at all they were permitted by the Chair, without interruption by ministers and MLAs of the ruling party and ‘B’ team parties of the ADMK. If the minutes of the proceedings which are published in due course are perused, it can be noted that many words of sentences and some sentences as whole in the speeches of DMK legislators are expunged by the Speaker, whose only mandate is to throttle the voice of opposition and refuse to heed to their pleas and ‘rule’ in favour of the treasury benches. Ruthless and senseless application of guillotine for any call attention motion given notice of by DMK members is the norm of the Assembly under ADMK seize. For instance, when the DMK legislative party leader M.K.Stalin gave notice for taking up the issue of the arrest of a senior doctor for requesting the CM and her securities to remove their footwear while entering into the internsive care unit of Apollo hospital, Chennai when she went to visit ‘Daily Thanthi’ owner Sivanthi Adityan admitted there in critical condition, the Speaker refused permission to speak on the issue which had agitated the minds of doctors and lawyers all over the State and their protest actions not permitted by the police. For three consecutive days he was refused permission to raise the issue of public importance.
On the same day (April 3), DMK member Dr. Pushpaleela Alban delivered her maiden speech participating in the debate on grants for Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal department. It is a norm that maiden speeches of new members are not interrupted unnecessarily. But violation of norm being the norm of ADMK, the ruling party members could not digest the woman member listing the measures introduced by Kalaignar to make the Nutritious Meal scheme really and materially nutritious. She also listed the schemes introduced by the DMK rule for women’s progress, which was also constantly intervened by the ministers by turn. At this point, Minister Valarmathi (notorious for her crude remark in the Assembly during the first tenure of Jayalalitha, that her leader did not ascend to power by showing the picture of a male corpse with only under garment in the waist lying upside down- meaning the assassinated body of Rajiv Gandhi) rose up and alleged that the DMK leader called the meals scheme as beggar’s scheme. Immediately Stalin objected to the remark of the minister. Another ADMK member permitted to speak and a minister asserted that there was evidence for the allegation. In the subsequent exchanges between Stalin and ministers, the Speaker expunged the words used by Stalin. When he asked for the evidence for what the ministers had mentioned, even as the nonplussed ministers blinked at each other, the Speaker ruled that he would verify from the House records and then decide about expunging the words used by ministers, and thus came to their rescue.
If any person on the road is asked whether there was any connection between nutritious meals and the TESO conference organised in New Delhi on Eelam Tamils issue, he would certainly rubbish the idea. But under Jayalalitha’s regime, her minister can invent a connection between the two and will go on record in the Assembly. That is what the same ‘queen over the tongue’ as Valarmathi is called, did while replying to the debate on the grants for Social Welfare and Nutritious meals department. Her low level, derogatory and vulgarised reference was objected to by DMK members. Pacifying them Stalin stood up and told the Chair that members were sitting to listen to the reply of the minister to the points raised by them during the debate and her unnecessary reference to TESO meet should be deleted from the records. The Speaker gave s strange ruling that the minister did not speak derogatively about anybody. The two more ministers harped on the same subject when Stalin asked who defended the killing of Eelam Tamils by the Lankan army and wanted Prabhakaran to be arrested and brought to India for trial. Unable to reply the ministers, parrot like, repeated the same points. As the Speaker pulled up the DMK members without restraining provocative speeches of ministers, they had to walkout.
The above said was only an instance on a particular day and the House is conducted in the same anti-democratic and useless manner on all days by the ADMK regime, reducing the Assembly to a farce and tragicomedy. An appeal to the people of India- Beware of the talks of the minions and apologists of Jayalalitha as Prime Minister of country.
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