Eyebrows were raised when A N Shamseer was made Speaker of the Kerala Assembly.
This was not because it was felt that he was too young or incapable but because he was one of the most belligerent CPM MLAs in the house. For the then Speaker M B Rajesh, Shamseer was more difficult to control than even the opposition MLAs.
The concern, therefore, was whether Shamseer could rise above political prejudices and project at least a semblance of neutrality as the Speaker of the House.
As it turned out, Shamseer has demonstrated an eagerness to be seen as the model Speaker. But in this attempt to be equally fair to both sides, there is a feeling among MLAs that Shamseer has ended up being unfair to both.
On February 27, when the ruling benches tried to shout down Opposition Leader V D Satheesan, Shamseer threw his weight behind the UDF.
He kept reminding the ruling side members that the opposition was silent when the Chief Minister was talking, when the truth was, as a CPM MLA pointed out, the UDF members were repeatedly needling the Chief Minister.
At one point Shamseer even looked fed up with the ruling side. "What can I do if they cannot listen to me," he was heard muttering, as if to himself.
Then, when the LDF members persisted in their shouting, Shamseer turned furious. "There is a limit to everything," he told the bellowing LDF members, lurching forward in anger. It is said that except for Vakkom Purushothaman, no other Speaker had behaved so harshly with the ruling side.
However, in the subsequent two days, February 28 and March 1, the Speaker, as if in a balancing act, rudely swatted aside the UDF entreaties. It was the Opposition's turn to feel aggrieved.
"It was as if the Speaker was making up for being very strict with the LDF on the first day the session resumed," a Congress MLA said. "He must have got some message from the top," the MLA said.
On February 28, Congress's Mathew Kuzhalnadan moved an adjournment motion on the Wadakkanchery Life Mission scandal. He took the Chief Minister head on by reading out from the remand report of the Enforcement Directorate. Kuzhalnadan's posers to the Chief minister were met with wild angry shouts from the other side.
The Speaker tried to reason but in vain. On February 27, it looked like Shamseer was more unhappy with the ruling side.
Amidst the chaos, law minister P Rajeeve cited clause 52(7) of the Kerala Assembly Rules of Procedure and said that a discussion could not be held in the Assembly on the basis of a remand report placed before the court.
The Speaker did not respond to this but kept telling members to get back to their seats. He then walked out, keeping the House in temporary suspension. When he returned after 15 minutes, Shamseer was a different man.
The Speaker refused Kuzhalnadan permission to read out from the remand report citing the clause pointed out by Rajeeve.
When the former home minister and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala, almost pleadingly, said that many court documents related to issues like 'bar bribery' and 'solar' scandals were discussed in the House earlier, Shamseer was brusque. "It might have happened before but I am not ready to allow it now," the Speaker said.
Later, quoting from Shakdher and Kaul (the Bible of parliamentary procedures), Opposition Leader V D Satheesan said that a remand report could not be used only if the case had entered the adjudication stage, which begins only when a chargesheet is filed.
In the Wadakkanchery Life Mission bribe case, the chargesheet is yet to be filed. A UDF MLA said the Speaker's decision was “patently unfair”.
On Wednesday (March 1), Shamseer seemed even less tolerant of the opposition. He did not allow the UDF to even move an adjournment motion, which is usually rare for a Speaker.
Mani avenges 'Krishnan'
CPM's Udumbanchola MLA, MM Mani, has still not forgiven former home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan.
It was in November 2012, when Thiruvanchoor was home minister, that he was arrested from his house at Kunjithanni near Idukki for his deadly 'one-two-three' boast.
During a public meeting at Mannarkkad in Palakkad in 2012, Mani let out chilling details, and in a cold-blooded fashion, of how the CPM did away with its political opponents, especially Congress and INTUC workers who had allegedly worked against the CPM. "One was shot dead. The second one was stabbed to death. The third was clubbed to death," he said.
It is as if it is impossible for Mani to spare Thiruvanchoor whenever he gets up to speak in the Assembly. "My honourable friend," is how Mani sarcastically referred to Thiruvanchoor on Wednesday, while speaking during the Discussion and Voting on Demands for Grants in the Budget for the financial year 2023-2024.
"When he was the home minister he had put lakhs of CPM workers in jail and tortured them," he said. "Lakhs," he repeated, making it clear that it was not a slip of the tongue. "I don't want to repeat what he has done to me," he said. Mani was
Then he made a reference to Thiruvanchoor's colour using Lord Krishna, which did not come across as offensive as he too had the same colour. Krishna was also short of Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan's name.
But Mani seems to have employed the Krishna connection to slyly insinuate that Thiruvanchoor has a reprehensible character flaw than to make fun of his colour. "He has the colour of Sree Krishna and is adept at what Krishna does," Mani said.
Thiruvanchoor was provoked. "The words he is using are exceeding limits," he told the Speaker gravely. But he quickly lightened his tone. "He said I am black but since he is pure white I am not disputing that," Thiruvanchoor said. He wisely ignored the second part of the Krishna connection.
But Thiruvanchoor made a correction. "He said I had jailed lakhs of Marxist party workers. How many people can be held inside Kerala's jails?," he asked. "The Chief Minister knows," he said, pointing to Pinarayi Vijayan.
"Even if we stuff all our jails, not more than 7000 could be accommodated. This being the case, why is this man speaking about lakhs," he said.
Shailaja's claim, Sunny's counter
The CPM has always taken credit for Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
CPM MLAs have consistently stated this in the Assembly. The latest was former health minister K K Shailaja. She told the Assembly that Congress could not have thought of this on its own and that this was included in the minimum programme of UPA-I only at the insistence of the CPM.
Congress MLA P C Vishnunath wanted this "falsehood" to be expunged from the Assembly records. He said the rural employment guarantee was part of the Congress manifesto in 2004. Shailaja quipped that if that was the case why did Congress not introduce such a scheme in the years that it had ruled the country before?
Congress's Sunny Joseph had a counter-question. "You say it was the CPM's idea but you were in power in Bengal for 30 years. Why was such a scheme not introduced there all this while," he asked.
