As DMK MLAs gathered near his chair for several minutes refusing to return to their seats, Speaker P. Dhanapal ordered their eviction from the House on Wednesday. Initiating the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address, Deputy Speaker Pollachi V. Jayaraman recalled the AIADMK’s win in all the by-polls since 2011 up to Srirangam. To this, DMK MLA J. Anbazhagan asked him to also speak about the outcome of the by-polls since 2006.
The treasury benches vehemently opposed it. Housing Minister R. Vaithilingam sought to know “if Satan can quote scriptures.” Mr. Jayaraman referred Mr. Anbazhagan as “clown,” prompting the DMK MLAs to rise in protest. Some of them gathered near the Speaker’s chair and demanded the word be expunged. Leader of the House Natham R. Viswanathan asked the Speaker to go into the rules and the actual speech and take necessary action.
Stating that “clown” was not an unparliamentary word, Mr. Dhanapal referred to a previous instance in 1998 when DMK member Duraimurgan had used a similar word.
The DMK MLAs were unrelenting and argued that while Mr. Jayaraman called a member “clown,” Mr. Duraimurugan had not directly called anyone a clown.
