AIADMK digs out Sarkaria past to bury DMK

Chennai: Under attack from the opposition for the revenue and fiscal deficit in its budget, AIADMK MLAs have, in the past few days, been digging up issues, including references to the Sarkaria Commission findings, to embarrass its rival during the ongoing assembly session.
Participating in the debate on the budget, AIADMK's Madurai North MLA V V Rajan Chellappa raked up the findings of the Sarkaria Commission, which probed corruption charges against the DMK regime in the 1970s and against party chief M Karunanidhi.Erode East MLA K S Thennarasu had mocked the DMK leaders saying while appa (Karunanidhi) called it Amma budget, son (M K Stalin) called it summa (empty) budget. The DMK chief and his son were referred to in a derogatory manner, said party members. Khadi and handlooms minister O S Manian brought up the murder of a DMK cadre in Tiruvarur during the party's regime. DMK MLAs demanded that the speaker expunge all these remarks.
But speaker P Dhanapal on Friday declined to expunge the remarks. As soon as the house met, leader of the opposition M K Stalin and the speaker argued over expunging Manian's remarks. Finally, members of DMK, Congress and IUML walked out of the assembly.
After the opposition members walked out, Dhanapal read out a statement accusing DMK MLAs of unruly behaviour in the House. "DMK MLAs address me without respect, and members like J Anbazhagan and Ranganathan behave in an unruly manner. I give them chance to speak but Stalin and Durai Murugan instigate their MLAs to create confusion in the House," alleged Dhanapal. "If they don't behave, I will take stern action as per assembly rules," he warned.
The speaker justified his action stating that Thennarasu had only repeated what DMK had told the media after the budget was presented. Chellappa's remarks on the Sarkaria Commission had been found in the assembly records earlier too and Manian's statements in no way affected the ongoing case, he said.