On November 21, Kerala Assembly Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan managed to silence a hysterical opposition for a fleeting moment.
The UDF members, agitated by the police attack on Congress MLA Shafi Parambil and the refusal of the government to suspend police officers, were taking out their frustration on the Speaker. They told him that he was least concerned about the safety of the members of the House. He could not ensure justice even for a ruling party MLA, CPI's Eldho Abraham.
Eldho was thrashed by the police during a CPI march he led to the office of the Inspector General of Police in Kochi on July 23 this year.
Looking hurt, the Speaker asked them to first study how the House had handled Eldho's case and then point fingers. He was asking them to refer the latest report of the Ethics and Privileges Committee. The Opposition had its mouth shut.
Had any of the UDF members bothered to go through the report, the Speaker would have been in trouble.
Mistaken atrocity
As it turned out, the latest report of the Ethics Committee did not deal with the police beating Eldho suffered on July 23. The police assault on Eldho has not been taken up at all.
Instead, the Ethics Committee report the Speaker wanted the UDF to study was about a 2017 complaint Eldho had filed against the rude behaviour of a grade sub-inspector.
No one in the Assembly was more puzzled than Eldho. “The Speaker must have mixed up the two issues,” Eldho said. “The Ethics Committee report was on a complaint I had made in 2017 against a policeman who insulted me over phone,” he told Onmanorama.
Plea that went unheard
A written complaint on the July 23 incident was also given to the Speaker. “I had called up the Speaker from my hospital bed. He asked me to immediately forward a complaint. I drafted a complaint and asked my personal staff to hand it over personally to the office of the Speaker,” Eldho said.
That was nearly four months ago. “Till this moment I had not received a call nor have been asked to give my testimony,” Eldho said.
CPM's A Pradeepkumar, the chairman of the Ethics and Privileges Committee, said the issue related to the police action against CPI MLA Eldho was yet to come before the committee. “I am sure the Speaker would soon ask the committee to consider the issue,” Pradeepkumar said.
Object of LDF shame
It was Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala who first employed Eldho to trouble the Speaker. “Leave alone Shafi Parambil, the House could not even protect the interests of CPI member Eldho Abraham,” Chennithala said.
The Opposition knew that the police attack on Eldho was highly sensitive for the LDF. Eldho had said the police had broken his left arm. The young MLA had then moved around with his left hand in an orthopaedic cast.
Later, the police submitted a medical record that rubbished Eldho's claim of fracture. To Eldho's dismay, even CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran, usually quick to respond to any perceived CPM injustice, did not come to his support.
So, right after Chennithala's jibe came Congress MLA Anwar Sadath's. He stood up and furiously told the Speaker that he could not do justice even to a ruling party member.
Literacy matters
The Speaker who did not respond to Chennithala's taunts found Sadath's statement provocative. “Members should first read the reports placed before them and only then think of hurling baseless charges,” the Speaker said. The Speaker was referring to the latest report of the Ethics and Privileges Committee.
“Read it to understand how the House had dealt with the Eldho issue,” the Speaker said. Anwar Sadath was left fumbling for answers.
Later when Onmanorama asked Sadath about the Speaker's comment, he admitted that the report of the Ethics Committee was indeed placed before the members. “I saw it but could not read it fully,” Sadath said.
Phone violence
If Sadath had read the report he would have realised it was about another complaint, an older one. Late in 2017, Eldho was passing through his constituency when he saw two policemen asking three men in an autorickshaw to step out. All the three were familiar to the MLA.
When he asked why the three were being questioned, the policeman on duty said they had been pulled up for drunken driving. Eldho wanted them to be spared. The policeman told the MLA to call up the grade sub-inspector.
Eldho alleged that the grade SI was rude to him when he called. The grade SI also refused to meet him at the police station. Eldho said he suspected that the grade SI was drunk. “No policeman in his right mind will ever talk to an MLA like that,” Eldho said.
The Ethics Committee headed by Pradeepkumar took the testimony of both Eldho and the grade SI. The grade SI lost his case when he was asked a fundamental question by the committee. “If as you say the three men were caught for drunken driving, was a medical examination done.” The policeman did not have an answer.
Eldho withdrew the case after the policeman gave an unconditional apology.
