Why did the Youth Congress choose the Palayam Men's Hostel in Thiruvananthapuram as the starting point of their night march against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on September 30? Did SFI members suffer heavy head injuries during the police action that took place following the Youth Congress-SFI clash on that day? Did CPM's Varkala MLA V Joy, in the anti-police march taken out the next day on October 1, threaten policemen with murder?

These were the questions that reverberated right through the 'one and a half'-hour Zero Hour in the Assembly on Monday during which CPM's V Joy moved an adjournment motion against the alleged violence unleashed by the police on SFI students. Both sides had their own versions of the truth, and the questions thus essentially remained unanswered.

Joy said protest marches in the capital invariably began either at the Martyrs' Column ("if the participation is low") or from the Asan Square, "if the gathering was large". "But the Youth Congress march began from the men's hostel. Have they even secured police permission to start their march from there? It has to be examined," Joy said, and added: "It was a deliberate move." He was clearly hinting that the move was purposefully done to cause a provocation.

Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan, too, suspected a "clear design" in the choice of the starting point of the Youth Congress night march on September 30. He said the police force moving in behind the Youth Congress recalled Emergency days.

Home minister Ramesh Chennithala had a terse reply. "The starting point of a march is decided by the organisers," Chennithala said, and added: "I know of CPM marches that had begun from wherever the party chose." He also wanted to know why the SFI was provoked by a march taken out against CEC Gyanesh Kumar.

Joy sounded particularly concerned about what he termed the "brutal attack" on students by the police. He spoke of Cantonment SI Gokul's action as though he was a boxing coach supervising the punch-rate of his understudy. "Within 24 seconds, he cracked open the skulls of six SFI students," Joy said. (He even produced in the Assembly the 'lathi' that he had snatched from the police. Speaker Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan handed it over to the Watch and Ward staff.)

Chennithala said that he had the 'wound report' with him and it had no signs of head injuries. "Even when I was home minister last time (in the Oommen Chandy cabinet), directives had been issued prohibiting hitting on the head," Chennithala said.

The Opposition Leader, however, was not convinced. Pinarayi gave two names - Venu and Vaishnavi - and said that one had a head injury and the other was injured in the eye. Chennithala once again waved the 'wound report' and said it was false. "There were no head injuries. People like Joy are trying to mislead you," he said.

Stung, Joy got up and said that he had another 'wound report' with him that confirmed head injury. "Your report is false, fabricated by the police," Joy said. Joy looked so visibly angry that the Speaker told him to calm down. "The home minister made the remark in a light-hearted way," the Speaker said.

In fact, Joy's anger was stoked by another remark Chennithala had made earlier in the discussion. Quoting media reports, the home minister said that Joy, while taking out a protest march against the police, had bellowed that "yet another murder will happen here". Chennithala said CPM leader Kadakampally Surendran went a step further. "Kadakampally said that these policemen would not have children at home for them to pet and pamper," the home minister said. "You are a public servant. You should not have said such a thing," Chennithala told Joy.

Joy then got up and challenged the home minister. "What you said is a lie. If you can prove that I had taken a policeman by name and threatened to murder him, I will resign as MLA," he said, and added: "What I meant was that police brutality could get a student murdered, not that a police man would be killed."

Chennithala did not take up the challenge as Joy had not given a specific name. But the home minister said Kadakampally had clearly referred to the CI and SI of Cantonment Police Station when he issued a threat of violence against their children.