Kerala Assembly: Political backwash of T.P. Chandrasekharan murder continues to beset House
Congress-led UDF Opposition walks out of Kerala Assembly on the same subject for second time in three days, accusing the government of lying to the House about the move to grant remissions to lifers serving time for Chandrasekharan’s assassination
The political backwash of the 2012 murder of CPI(M) dissident and Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) founder T.P. Chandrasekharan beset the Kerala Legislative Assembly again on June 27.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Opposition walked out of the Assembly on the same subject for the second time in three days, accusing the government of lying to the House about the well-documented move to grant remissions to lifers serving time for Chandrasekharan’s assassination.
T.P. Chandrasekaran murder case: Three Kannur prison officials suspended over sentence remission recommendation
Intriguing political theatre preceded the UDF’s effort to raise the politically touchy issue in the Assembly again.
A seemingly alarmed Kerala government hastily suspended jail officials who purportedly initiated the remission process from service pending investigation minutes before the House took up Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheeshan’s submission on the highly animating topic.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s absence in the House seemed loudly conspicuous. Minister M.B. Rajesh replied in Mr. Vijayan’s stead to the submission.
Speaker A.N. Shamseer, who had drawn Opposition criticism for allegedly defending the government, was not on the Chair. Deputy Speaker Chittayam Gopakumar officiated in his stead.
Mr. Satheesan’s submission had the makings of an adjournment debate. He accused the government of diluting prison rules and conditions for remission of sentence to stack the decks in favour of Chandrasekharan’s killers.
Mr. Satheeshan said the government set the remission process in fast motion in contempt of the Kerala High Court’s decision to double the jeopardy of the “assassins”.
Mr. Satheesan said the police had asked K.K. Rema, MLA and Chandrasekharan’s wife, about her dispensation to grant clemency for her husband’s killers even when the government swore there was no such move.
“You should be ashamed of yourself for using the establishment’s heft to release the hardened killers”, Mr. Satheesan told the Treasury Benches.
Minister concedes ‘anomalies’
Mr. Rajesh conceded that “some anomalies” had crept into preparing the list of prisoners eligible for remission of the sentence as per an amnesty scheme linked to the 75th anniversary of India’s Independence. He said the Additional Chief Secretary, Home, had rectified the irregularities.
He condemned the UDF’s move to generate an adjournment debate under the pretext of moving a submission.
Mr. Rajesh said the UDF had repeatedly resurrected the “case” in the House and outside to “defame” the government. “The Opposition had come to the House with anti-government placards and banners to create politically advantageous theatre”, he added.
Angered Opposition members trooped into the well of the House and mobbed the Speaker’s dais. They raised placards and slogans against the government. Later, the members stormed out of the House in protest.
Mr. Satheesan later told reporters that the UDF would agitate in the House and outside until it received an assurance from the government that the convicts would receive no parole or commutation of sentence until they serve 20 years in prison as ordered by the High Court.
- Telegram
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