Chaos in TN assembly over Veerappan

Chaos prevailed in the Tamil Nadu assembly for about ten minutes, when the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazagham members clashed with Opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazagham legislators.

The trouble arose when the Forward Bloc's P N Vallarasu demanded that the government probe the alleged links between former chief minister Jayalalitha Jayaram and Veerappan.

In retaliation, the three-member AIADMK party in the House alleged that there was a nexus between Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and the forest brigand.

Karunanidhi, in a bid to take the heat off the exchanges, jocularly remarked that there was a connection between him and Veerappan. Not the forest brigand, but former minister and MGR Kazhagam president R M Veerappan.

When the AIADMK members repeated their charge, two ruling party members rushed menacingly towards AIADMK leader P Thamaraikani and his colleagues.

They were pacified by Public Works Minister Durai Murugan and Transport Minister Ponmudi and persuaded to return to their seats.

Earlier, there was a wordy duel between Thamaraikani and the lone Devendra Sangam member Krishnasamy when the former held the dalit leader responsible for the caste clashes in southern districts.

There were heated exchanges when Thamaraikani branded Krishnasamy a Naxalite and said he should be externed from the state if the government wanted to put an end to the communal clashes.

Speaker P T T Palanivel Rajan, who came to the House at this juncture, asked the AIADMK members to resume their seats. When P R Sundaram continued to be on his feet, a visibly annoyed speaker ordered his eviction.

The speaker, however, recalled his eviction order when the marshals went near the member to evict him from the house.

The house also witnessed heated exchanges between Thamaraikani and Tamil Maanila Congress members, when the former accused the DMK government of failure to honour the late dalit leader Kakkan.

Coming to the rescue of its ally, TMC member S Alagiri said dalit leaders were denigrated only during the previous AIADMK regime and Jayalalitha's refusal to accommodate Union Minister M Arunachalam on a chartered flight in Madurai was an example of this.

UNI