Prevented from ‘speaking’ on CM’s daughter’s case, Cong MLA says democracy is butchered in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Assembly on Thursday witnessed a ruckus after Congress legislator Mathew Kuzhalnadan was prevented from speaking by vociferous treasury bench legislators even as Speaker A.N. Shamseer said that the Assembly is not the place where one can say anything.

The Speaker also ruled that the media should not report on the remarks that have been expunged.

“Democracy is being butchered in Kerala, but I will go ahead according to the law. They (treasury bench legislators) were fearing that I will raise the issue about Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his daughter. While I never named anyone, but since they feared that I might speak about Vijayan and his daughter, I was prevented from speaking and my democratic rights were butchered. But I am not going to be cowed down,” Kuzhalnadan told the media outside the Assembly.

On Wednesday, a news item had appeared in Malayala Manorama, a leading vernacular daily, on the alleged payment reportedly received by CM’s daughter Veena Vijayan from a mining company.

The report said that CMRL, a company engaged in mining, had paid Veena Vijayan and her IT firm Exalogic a sum of Rs 1.72 crore during 2017-2020 for IT services rendered.

The report said that the Income Tax Appellate Board, while examining the tax returns of CMRL, stumbled upon payments made to Veena and her IT firm. It was also found based on the information provided by a few CMRL officials that no services were rendered by her firm to the company.

Earlier on Thursday, when asked why they did not seek leave for an adjournment motion on the issue concerning Veena Vijayan,Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan said that media cannot decide the agenda to be followed by them on how they should function.

“We cannot function according to your wishes. There are rules and procedures that are to be followed when seeking leave for an adjournment motion,” said Satheesan.

Commenting on the issue, BJP leader and Union Minister of State for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said that a new phenomenon has evolved in Kerala which is known as ‘Veena Service Tax’, as he asked on what basis did Veena’s company receive the money from CMRL.

However, the CPI-M state secretariat in a statement issued on Thursday dismissed all that which has been reported as baseless.

“There was a legal agreement between the two parties (CMRL and Veena Vijayan), and the money was transferred based on that agreement. And this was reported in Malayala Manorama which is known for its apathy towards the CPI-M, and hence it is least surprising.”

“It was the CMRL which approached the appellate authority. Veena or her company are not parties and nor was she heard and hence this is a devious move and a conspiracy was hatched ahead of the upcoming Puthupally assembly by-election. Moreover for a while now it has become the habit of the Centre to haunt political opponents using central agencies. Vijayan has no role in all these and this is just what happened in the past when he was haunted in the name of business in Singapore. Likewise here the opposition tried their best to spread canards ahead of the 2021 assembly polls, but it was all thrown into the dustbin,” said the CPI-M statement.

Now with the Assembly session adjourned till September 11, the Congress-led Opposition is likely to rake up the issue during the campaign for the September 5 bypoll in Puthuppally, which was necessitated due to the vacancy that arose following the demise of Congress veteran Oommen Chandy.

–IANS