Satheesan Seeks Expunging of Sonia Gandhi Remarks from Assembly Records
Thiruvananthapuram: Leader of Opposition in the Kerala assembly VD Satheesan on Thursday urged Speaker AN Shamseer to remove from the House records the “derogatory” statements and allegations made by three ministers of the ruling CPI(M) against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.
Ministers MB Rajesh, V Sivankutty and Veena George, during the morning’s Assembly hearings, alleged that Congress and Sonia Gandhi were involved in the gold loss at Sabarimala, visited the house of Unnikrishnan Potty, the prime accused in the case, and took photos with him.
Sivankutty also demanded that Sonia Gandhi be arrested and interrogated and her house raided to recover the missing gold.
Satheesan, in his letter to Shamseer, argued that as per the parliament’s rules of procedure, defamatory or incriminating allegations should not be made against anyone without prior notice to the Speaker.
He suggested that the allegations must be supported by evidence, particularly that the allegations must be made against someone outside the parliament.
Satheesan said that various decisions have been taken by the Presidency in this regard in the past.
He alleged that ministers, in violation of rules and orders, made false allegations against Sonia Gandhi, who had a “pure political life” and led a “selfless public life” for decades.
The opposition leader claimed that the ministers’ remarks were a serious breach of discipline and did not comply with parliamentary etiquette.
He requested the Speaker to take necessary steps to remove the statements against Sonia Gandhi from the parliamentary records, refrain from broadcasting the same images on the House TV channel and give strict instructions to the ministers not to repeat the same.
The Sabarimala gold loss cases relate to alleged misappropriation of precious metal from Dwarapalaka (guardian deity) idols and Sreekovil (sanctum sanctorum) door frames in the Lord Ayyappa temple.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), probing the cases, arrested 12 people, including Potty and two former chairmen of the Travancore Devaswom Board, in the matter.
