Opposition boycotts Governor’s coverage tackle in Kerala Assembly, slams Speaker

The Opposition UDF led by the Congress Friday boycotted the Governor’s coverage tackle on the opening day of the funds session of the Kerala Assembly, elevating slogans towards the Assembly Speaker and the state authorities.
As quickly as Governor Arif Muhammad Khan started his tackle, detailing the LDF’s authorities’s achievements within the final 5 years, Opposition MLAs trooped into the properly of the House, holding placards and banners and elevating slogans.
A couple of minutes into his speech, Governor Khan appealed to the MLAs, “You have raised enough slogans. Let me do my constitutional duty. Please don’t interrupt me.” Following this, the Opposition MLAs walked out of the House and staged a protest on the entrance steps of the constructing. While Independent MLA PC George additionally walked out together with UDF MLAs, the lone BJP consultant O Rajagopal stayed again within the House.

The UDF’s grouse towards Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan is his alleged involvement within the gold smuggling and greenback smuggling instances. On Friday, the Speaker’s extra personal secretary Okay Ayyappan appeared earlier than the Customs officers in Kochi to reply questions within the greenback smuggling case. The Speaker has repeatedly said that he has not indulged in any wrongdoing.

Outside the Assembly, Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala advised reporters, “It’s the first time in the history of the Kerala Assembly that a Speaker is in the dock for involvement in a gold/US dollar smuggling case. It’s in a session presided by the same Speaker that a government drowning in corruption is getting the Governor to make a policy address. This is a government that’s handling matters in a way where democracy has little meaning.”

“Here is a Speaker that fits the Chief Minister. On one side, you have a government reeking of corruption and on the other a person who has made the Assembly a focal point of corruption. Every point mentioned in the Governor’s address is meant to fool the people. Promises have been made, but those promises have not been kept,” he added.

Meanwhile, in his tackle, Governor Khan stated the LDF authorities led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has fulfilled all the guarantees it made in its manifesto in 2016. He stated the federal government was the primary within the nation to announce a Covid-19 reduction bundle that ensured that nobody went hungry. Taking a veiled potshot on the Centre, the Governor stated Kerala was on the forefront of defending secular values when Parliament handed the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act.