Chennai: A privilege motion moved by Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Arcot N Veeraswami against Left members Sivapunniam and K Balabharathi led to chaotic scenes in the state Assembly on Monday and resulted in members of the Communist parties being evicted.
Veeraswami said he moved the privilege motion against Communist Party of India (CPI) member Sivapunniam and the Communist Party of India-Marxist's (CPI-M) Balabharathi as they had made allegedly derogatory remarks about Speaker R Avudaiappan to reporters on July 17 about his style of conducting the Assembly proceedings.
Moving the motion, Veeraswami said the Business Advisory Committee decides on the amount of time members of each party would get to speak in the House. As per the committee's decision, AIADMK has been allotted 25 minutes, Congress 20 minutes, PMK 15 minutes, the two Communist parties 10 minutes each, and MDMK, VCK and DMDK seven minutes each.
He said that Balabharathi spoke for 19 minutes and Sivapunniam for 12 minutes on July 17 and complained to journalists that the Speaker does not allow some parties to speak but allows additional time for members of the DMK and Congress and shouted slogans against him.
When the Speaker agreed to Veeraswami's request to refer the matter to the Privileges Committee, lawmakers belonging to the two Communist parties, the AIADMK, PMK and MDMK appealed that the two be allowed to explain their position.
Deputy Leader of Opposition and AIADMK member O Panneerselvam said the concerned members should be given notice before referring a matter to the Privileges Committee, but Veeraswami brushed aside their suggestion.
Members of the CPI and CPI-M started shouting slogans against the speaker, who ordered their eviction as his attempts to calm them down failed.
The watch and ward staff entered the house and evicted members of the two Communist parties.
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