Court ruling affects Assembly session

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ongoing controversy over the Kerala High Courts ban on roadside public meetings and the verbal attacks on the judiciary by CPI(M) leaders had its echo in the Assembly on Friday when slogan-shouting Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) members trooped into the well of the House forcing adjournment of the proceedings barely half-an-hour into zero hour.

The Opposition members rushed to the well of the House taking exception to a mistaken observation by Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan about the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, while responding to the UDF demand for adjournment of the proceedings to discuss the High Court fiat and its aftermath.

The Chief Ministers attempt was to remind the Congress benches about how their party had responded to the Allahabad High Court verdict against the late Indira Gandhi with the imposition of Emergency.

Trouble arose when he asked the Opposition to recall how the late Sanjay Gandhi and his supporters had detained and intimidated the then Supreme Court Judge V.R. Krishna Iyer. However, instead of attributing the action to Sanjay Gandhi, he mentioned Rajiv Gandhis name.