THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Brushing aside the allegations surrounding Mahatma Gandhi, Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan on Wednesday confirmed there was no deliberate attempt to exclude the Father of the Nation from the programme brochure in connection with the diamond jubilee of Assembly.
Terming the controversy unfortunate and arising out of misunderstanding, the Speaker said it was only natural that the state’s first chief minister E M S Namboothiripad got prominence in a programme that deals with 60th anniversary of Kerala formation and its Legislative Assembly.
“The controversy over the invite of the seminar series in connection with the diamond jubilee of Assembly has arisen out of sheer misunderstanding. Allegations over the portrayal of E M S in the programme notice are unfortunate,” he said in a statement.
Reiterating there was no deliberate attempt from the part of the Assembly Secretariat to exclude the Father of Nation or any national stalwarts for that matter, the Speaker requested to keep the misunderstandings at bay.
The Assembly, which has high regard for the Father of Nation should not be dragged into unnecessary controversies, he urged.
Meanwhile, the Speaker has reportedly said he would look into the issue if there were any pitfalls.