Thiruvananthapuram: The Opposition UDF used the suicide of Valayath Joseph, a differently-abled man, in the Assembly on Monday to strike at the foundation of the LDF's most emotional sales pitch in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls: social welfare. A monthly pension of Rs 1600 for 62 lakh people is the LDF's biggest poll slogan.
Congress MLA P C Vishnunath, moving an adjournment motion, said that it was the failure of the Pinarayi government to disburse social welfare pensions for five months that led to the suicide of Joseph. Opposition Leader V D Satheesan then declared rhetorically. "It is not this government's priority to disburse social welfare pensions pending for five months. It is not this government's priority to sanction money for the children's noon meal scheme. This government's priority is the conduct of Keraleeyam and the extravaganza called Nava Kerala Sadas," he said during his walk-out speech.
As it turned out, the UDF could not stage a walkout in as dramatic a fashion as they would have preferred. Its attempt to disrupt the day's proceedings in the name of social welfare was thwarted by Speaker A N Shamseer. The UDF MLAs swarmed the base of the Speaker's dais shouting slogans and holding anti-government banners above their heads to block the Speaker's view hoping that the Speaker, infuriated, would cut short the day.
In fact, in such instances, it is usual for speakers to quicken the proceedings and bring the day to a swift close.
But unlike his predecessors, Shamseer has cold-shouldered such opposition methods. Monday was no different. He remained indifferent to the chaos unfolding right under his nose and went ahead with the day's proceedings as if it were a normal day. After shouting for more than half an hour, the Opposition members realised that the Speaker would not play ball and offer them a political victory on a platter. The only way out was to troop out of the House without much ado and do the chest-thumping outside.
Nonetheless, the UDF could puncture one of the criticisms that the LDF has quite effectively used against the UDF. Even before the Pinarayi Vijayan government was accused of delaying welfare pensions, the LDF had consistently stated that the previous Oommen Chandy government had left welfare pensions unpaid for 18 months. Finance Minister K N Balagopal had even recently given an interview citing the same 18-month charge.
"On what basis has the finance minister made such an allegation," Vishnunath asked while moving the adjournment motion. Both Vishnunath and later the Opposition Leader, too, produced Assembly documents - written replies provided by CPM finance ministers T M Thomas Isaac and Balagopal - to establish that the arrears during Chandy's tenure were only for four months between 2015 and 2016. The amount was just Rs 806 crore. They said the White Paper brought out by the first Pinarayi ministry, too, had given Rs 806 crore as the pending amount.
"And this happened not because the government did not disburse the amount but as a result of technical issues that cropped up with the shift to the direct benefit transfer mode," Satheesan said.
In response, the finance minister held up other Assembly documents to show that there were indeed arrears. Nonetheless, his statement was vague and he did not give a specific figure. Then he changed the goalposts. "When the A K Antony government left office, it had not paid pension for two-and-a-half years," he said.
However, with the support of official records, Balagopal argued that Valayath Joseph's suicide was not the consequence of pending welfare pensions. He said Joseph had received pensions, both for himself and his differently-abled daughter, in November and December, Rs 3200 each month. And in August, he and his daughter received a pension for two months, a total of Rs 6400. "He committed suicide even before the next pension date was due," the minister said, hinting that there could be other reasons for Joseph's suicide.
Nonetheless, Balagopal did not deny that social welfare pensions for five months were still pending. The pension that Joseph had received in August, November and December was the unpaid pension of earlier months. "The minister has not uttered a word about the welfare pensions pending for five months," Satheesan reminded him.
The Opposition had earlier said that on a medicine cover found near the body of Joseph was written in Joseph's writing that the government was responsible for his death. The minister said it was still too early to infer anything from the writing on the medicine cover. "The police is probing the authenticity of the writing," the minister said.
