Idukki: Despite outcries from the Opposition that saw Assembly proceedings disrupted for the second day, CPM legislator and former minister MM Mani on Thursday not only refused to apologise for his insensitive remarks against fellow legislator KK Rema, but also asserted that he had done no wrong.
Criticism is part and parcel of Assembly proceedings. One must be ready for it, Mani said. But in the same breath, the Udumbanchola MLA added that Rema had no right to criticise Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. "She [Rema] is needlessly attacking the CM. My statements were in reply to that aggression," Mani said.
Had it not been for CPM to vacate the seat Vadakara seat to the Loktantrik Janata Dal in 2021, Rema would never have become an MLA, Mani contested.
Rema is a legislator of the Revolutionary Marxist Party, a former ally of the CPM, but now with the Congress-led Opposition - the United Democratic Front (UDF).
Ironically, Mani's latest statements had come while speaking at a women's welfare function in Thodupuzha.
Rema is one of the two women legislators on the Opposition bench.
The controversy began on Thursday when Mani said that it was Rema's fate that she became a widow. "We are not responsible for what happened to her," Mani said.
This was in response to Rema's earlier statement that criticised the entire police force for giving her husband TP Chandrasekharan's murderers preferential treatment inside jails.
While Rema's statements were aimed at the Home Department, Mani likely presumed it to be an attack on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who heads the portfolio.
"It is not right for her to personally attack the Chief Minister," Mani had said then.
The Opposition UDF boycotted the Assembly proceedings on Thursday when it was clear that Mani had no intention of apologising.
The Assembly was cut short on Friday as well with demands for an apology from Mani ringing in the House.
"We cannot carry on like this after one of our sisters is insulted in this manner," Opposition leader VD Satheesan had said.
Of the 12 convicted in the murder of TP Chandrasekharan on May 12, 2012, three were local CPM leaders.
However, the CPM has maintained that its workers were wrongly implicated in the murder.
