Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], September 30 : The Kerala Legislative Assembly was adjourned early on Tuesday following a heated protest by Opposition MLAs demanding discussion over an alleged death threat made against Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. The Speaker expedited proceedings and called off further business, with the House to reconvene following Monday.
Opposition members staged a protest inside the House, holding up banners that read, "Ensure Justice, Speaker" after the Assembly Speaker rejected the adjournment motion in the Assembly over a BJP leader's controversial remark during a TV debate, where he allegedly threatened to shoot Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.
Peravoor MLA and KPCC president Advocate Sunny Joseph moved the notice, demanding that the House be adjourned to discuss the State government's failure to arrest the BJP leader.
However, Speaker AN Shamseer said the matter was not important and denied permission for its presentation. "If someone says something during a television debate, can it be brought to the floor of the Assembly?" he asked, suggesting that Sunny Joseph could instead raise the matter as a submission.
LoP in Kerala Assembly, VD Satheesan, strongly objected to the Speaker's remarks, saying the issue was serious and should not be trivialised. He accused the government of attempting to shield the BJP leader and criticised its failure to register a case over the death threat.
Satheesan also met with the media following the uproar in the House.
Meanwhile, Minister P Rajeev said that the Opposition's protest in the Assembly is just a show. He pointed out that although the incident occurred on September 26, not a single street protest has been held so far. "Why hasn't even a submission been given until now?" he asked.
Rajeev added that AK Antony had once lamented during a press conference that he had no one to speak for him in the Assembly. "Rahul Gandhi has called a press conference in Delhi today. Since they have done nothing until now, the Opposition is staging a protest drama in the Assembly today," the Minister remarked.
The row over the death threat began when Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal on Sunday wrote a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah demanding action against a BJP leader in Kerala for allegedly issuing a death threat to Rahul Gandhi.
In the letter to Shah, the Congress leader said that "failure" to act swiftly against "BJP spokesperson" Printu Mahadev will be judged as "complicity and normalisation of violence" against the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, and "grave breach" of oath as the Union home minister.
According to Venugopal's letter, the BJP spokesperson in the televised debate on a regional news channel allegedly declared that 'Rahul Gandhi will be shot in the chest.'