The agitating ASHA workers have still not been able to get the attention of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, but at least a heated argument in their name disrupted Kerala Assembly proceedings on March 5, Tuesday. The ASHA workers' agitation has entered its 24th day.

It was an adjournment motion moved by Congress's Palakkad MLA Rahul Mamkoottathil seeking a temporary halt of all the day's proceedings to discuss the issues faced by ASHA workers, that led to pandemonium. And the path to disruption was the usual, cliched one. 

Opposition Leader V D Satheesan making his walk out speech, Speaker A N Shamseer asking him to cut his speech short after some time, the Opposition Leader defiantly declaring that he would stop only after he had said all that he had come to say, the Speaker in turn saying that there was a time limit inside the Assembly and that if he wanted to say more he was welcome to do it outside, egos flaring up, the Opposition Leader gesturing his members to storm the base of the Speaker's dias, and the Speaker then forced to rush through the day's proceeedings. Had it not been for the disruption, the day's session would have spread over seven hours. This was shrunk to less than 15 minutes.

It was Rahul Mamkoottathil's day, this was his first adjournment motion. He made a spirited case for increasing the honorarium of ASHA workers. 

"For working seven days a week, all that they are paid is a measly Rs 7000 a month," Rahul said. "Their daily wage is Rs 232. They are just asking that this be raised to Rs 700," he said. Rahul then pulled out the pistol of biting sarcasm from his arsenal and pointed it at the LDF. "In addition to all the social and health interventions they have to make, our ASHAs are forced to attend the public meetings of the Chief Minister and ministers and asked to clap for all that they say," he said. "Is Rs 232 enough for listening to you?," he said. 

The debutant Palakkad MLA compared the demand of ASHA workers with the salary increase the government had recently granted Kerala State Public Service Commission (PSC) members. "An ASHA wants her daily wage increased to Rs 700 from Rs 232, but look at the increase you have given a PSC member. From Rs 10,000, his wage has been increased to Rs 14,538," Rahul said. 

He said that when the ASHA scheme began during the second UPA Government under Manmohan Singh, ASHAs had to work only for three hours, and was allowed to take up other jobs. "Now, they have to work from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. And once they reach home, they have to do a considerable amount of data entry work. On top of it, they have been barred from taking up other jobs," he said.

Rahul reminded the LDF  government that ASHAs were promised a minimum wage of Rs 700 in its election manifesto. He was also critical of CPM and CITU leader Elamaram Kareem who had made derogatory remarks about the agitating ASHAs. "This very man, when he was MLA, had moved a Submission in this House in 2014 demanding that the honorarium of ASHAs should be increased to Rs 10,000," Rahul said. He said that the CITU in Haryana and West Bengal were on the warpath with their governments over their refusal to offer higher honorariums for ASHAs. "Here not only has the Chief Minister ignored the ASHAs but the government has also pulled down the tarpaulin the protesting women had thrown over their tent in front of Secretariat as cover, even if flimsy, from the blazing sun," Rahul said.

Rahul stands corrected

Nonetheless, the Palakkad MLA was contradicted by Health Minister Veena George on three counts. One, he said that the minister had not met the agitating ASHA workers. She said she had talked to them for nearly two hours on February 15. Two, Rahul said that the minister had spurned the protesters who tried to meet her at her residence by asking them to meet at her office. "When you went seeking votes from them, did you make sure that you met them only during office hours," he said. Veena George said it was a blatant lie and said she would take legal action against such defamatory statements. Three, Rahul said that unlike earlier ASHAs were prohibited from taking up any other work. The minister contested this saying that there were 1230 ASHAs who perform MGNREGA work and 729 who are local body representatives.

Is Centre truly stingy?

The Opposition Leader, however, punctured one of the claims made by the minister. She had said that the Centre had withheld Rs 100 crore meant for ASHAs, and that the government was paying ASHAs despite the Centre's penny-pinching ways. Satheesan said that the arrears of nearly Rs 100 crore was for the entire National Health Mission project, not just for ASHAs. By January 25, Satheesan said the centre had paid Rs 815 crore. "What's left is Rs 98 crore and there is one-and-a-half months more to go for the fiscal to end," he said.

Tale of two CMs

If Rahul spoke of a CM who pulled down the tarpaulin roof of agitating ASHAs, Satheesan spoke of another CM who increased the honorarium of ASHA workers. "ASHA workers in Karnataka had staged a protest in a large field. And what did the Karnataka CM (Siddharamaiah) do? He called a meeting of officials and ASHAs and then made the health commissioner visit the ASHAs at their protest site and announce an increased honorarium of Rs 10,000," Satheesan said and held up a newspaper photograph of rejoicing Karnataka ASHAs. "Look at their joy," he said. "This is how a Chief Minister should be," he said.

Satheesan then urged the CM to call a meeting with the agitating ASHA workers. It was at this point that Speaker Shamseer intervened and the House slipped into disarray.

Love in the time of loathing
But amid the chaos was a wonderful moment. 

Even the  UDF members shouting slogans against the Speaker and the Chief Minister raised their hands in support when the Chief Minister moved a resolution urging the Centre to withdraw the proposed amendment and further steps regarding deep-sea mineral mining off in the coast of Kerala. "Now they might be in a different mood but it has to be said they had already agreed to pass this resolution unanimously," the Chief Minister said, a warm gesture of gratitude in a moment of heightened animosity.