AIADMK MLAs allowed to attend House

Chennai, May 29 : The Tamil Nadu Assembly today passed a unanimous resolution allowing the suspended AIADMK members to attend the House from the next Budget session.

A resolution to this effect was moved by Leader of the House and Tamil Nadu Finance Minister K Anbazhagan and passed by voice vote.

The resolution comes in the wake of suggestion given by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi that the Speaker could consider allowing the AIADMK members to attend the proceedings from the Budget Session following a request from DPI Floor Leader Selvam who described as harsh the punishment meted out to the AIADMK MLAs for their unruly behaviour in the House on May 26.

Mr Selvam urged the Speaker to allow the AIADMK members to attend the proceedings from tomorrow.

Earlier, MDMK Floor Leader M Kannappan and Mr Selvam said non-revocation of the suspension was tantamount to stifling the voice of democracy and hence, the Speaker should allow the MLAs to attend the House from tomorrow. Intervening, Mr Karunanidhi said there was nothing wrong with the request made by the DPI, but DPI leader should know that the AIADMK MLAs did not have the basic courtesy to express regret for their act as demanded by the Speaker to reconsider his decision.

However, based on the request of the Chief Minister and the resolution adopted by the House, the Speaker said the members would be allowed to participate in the Budget Session.

Earlier, before staging a walkout, Mr Kannappan and Mr Selvam urged the Speaker to announce the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) decision on the issue at the earliest.

Mr Karunanidhi said the MDMK and the DPI staged a walkout describing the suspenion as 'anti-democratic.' But there were instances when the House passed several orders in the past which were even tougher.

During the anti-Hindi stir in the 1980s, Mr K Anbazahgan and eight other DMK MLAs were disqualifed from the membership of the House for burning copies of the Constitution outside the House.

In another instance, DMK MLA, Paruthi Ilamvazhuthi, was arrested and jailed and a box was brought to the House to cross examine Murasoli's Editor Murasoli Selvam who published the story in a vernacular, he recounted.

UNI