Thiruvananthapuram: Deputy Speaker Chittayam Gopakumar on Saturday published a Facebook post expressing disappointment over Deshabhimani's decision to exclude him from a picture that went along with the daily's report on the floral tributes paid to a statue of social reformer Dr B R Ambedkar at the Assembly on his birth anniversary.
The CPI legislator, however, deleted the post a few hours later following an intervention by higher-ups in his party and the CPM.
"Being the chief guest of the event, was it justified to only include the pictures of the ministers?" he asked through the post. Ministers K Radhakrishnan and V Sivankutty were also in attendance at the event.
It was only after both the CPI and CPM ensured that no such incidents would happen in the future that Gopakumar deleted the post.
He was invited to the function after the Speaker informed of his unavailability. Gopakumar even received a salute from the Watch and Ward, which is the security wing of the State Legislature.
It was Deshabhimani's call to publish just the pictures of the ministers paying tribute that miffed the deputy speaker.
He asked whether the CPM mouthpiece resorted to such a decision as he was a CPI activist.
He also asked if this was how the party practised social justice and equality.
CPI had raised the issue with the CPM soon after the post became public.
