Chennai: Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker Prabhakar on Thursday announced that a privilege committee inquiry will be initiated against Vilathikulam DMK MLA Markandeyan over remarks made about Chief Minister Vijay outside the House.
During the Assembly debate, Markandeyan criticised the budget and alleged that the government had adopted DMK schemes, adding that it was more of a “name-changing government” than a “government of change”. Following this, Minister Nirmal Kumar said the MLA had spoken in a defamatory manner about the Assembly and the Chief Minister and sought action.
Minister Aadhav Arjuna told the House that a letter seeking action against Markandeyan had already been submitted to the Speaker earlier in the day. Prabhakar said Markandeyan’s conduct in the House was of a certain standard, but his comments outside were not in keeping with the dignity of the Assembly, adding that he had also received letters from members of the public.
The Speaker said there were two possible courses: taking up the matter for a vote in the House and acting based on the majority, or referring it to the privilege committee for inquiry. As the privilege committee is not currently in place, he said the inquiry would be taken up once it is constituted.
In a separate remark, Prabhakar recalled being shaken when former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi was arrested at night, and said police should act with humanity while performing their duties, adding that arresting an elderly person at night was wrong.
