Minister Veena George's mic muted; Ruling party members turn against speaker Shamseer

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ruling party members on Wednesday turned against Speaker A.N. Shamseer for not allowing Minister Veena George time to respond for the third time during the adjournment motion.

Ministers V. Sivankutty, K.N. Balagopal, P. Rajeeve, R. Bindu and other CPM MLAs stood up and shouted against the Speaker.

Satheesan severely criticized Minister Veena for transferring a nurse to Idukki, who stood with the victim in the Kozhikode Medical College's ICU torture case. Satheesan also blamed the health minister for receiving a KAAPA case accused, with garlands in Pathanamthitta.

During the speech, the minister stood up to reply, but Satheesan did not relent. After the walkout speech, the speaker allowed the minister to speak, but Veena made a slow start going into detail with her explanation. With this, Deputy Leader of Opposition P.K. Kunhalikutty and other congress leaders accused the speaker of allowing extra time to the minister. Veena's mic was then switched off.

With this, ministers and others turned against the Speaker. After the speech of the opposition party leaders, the minister was allowed to speak. With this, the ruling party's protest ended. On the first two occasions, the minister's reply took about 25 minutes.