Thiruvananthapuram, March 13: Legislators came to blows, an MLA allegedly bit a colleague, the finance minister sneaked in through a different gate than usual and read out the budget from a fellow minister's seat after the Speaker gave him permission in "sign language" because his microphone had been broken and his voice could not be heard above the din - all in the space of 15 minutes in the Kerala Assembly this morning.
For people watching the free-for-all unfold in the "temple of democracy" - located barely 500 metres from the city zoo - on their television screens, disbelief gave way to humour, anger and contempt.
The clouds for today's storm had started gathering last evening when finance minister K.M. Mani and his cabinet colleagues decided to spend the night in the Assembly complex after the BJP and the Left threatened to stop him from reaching the House today and presenting the budget.
Mani had been named in an FIR in a bribery case.
The action began before 9am when Mani, who had spent the night in his office in the Assembly complex, tried to walk to the House. Left MLAs formed a barricade and pushed him back, only to be confronted by the in-house security - the watch and ward staff.
Working to a plan, the Opposition members then moved towards Speaker Nadar's dais, refusing to let in him either. As he retreated, another set of Left MLAs overturned the Speaker's chair, vandalised his desk and damaged the gadgets. The party was hoping that even if they could not stop Mani, they would achieve their objective if the Speaker could not enforce due procedure, thereby making the budget presentation unconstitutional.
The ruling members, meanwhile, managed to sneak Mani into the House through a different entrance. Instead of his seat, which is third from the chief minister's in the front row, Mani sat in the third row on cooperation minister C.N. Balakrishnan's chair.
The Speaker too managed to reach the dais and "conveyed his permission to Mani to table the budget in sign language" as the microphone had been destroyed and his voice was drowned by the Opposition sloganeering.
Mani read out a few lines of the budget, winding up his ritual in six minutes, and a loud cheer went up from the ruling ranks that celebrated the "victory" by distributing laddoos.
At that point, some women MLAs from the Opposition tried to walk up to confront chief minister Oommen Chandy, but could not break the cordon formed by Congress MLAs Sivadasan Nair and M.A. Vahid. As Nair and Vahid forced the women back, CPM MLA Jameela Prakasham allegedly bit Nair on the right shoulder.
Nair later unbuttoned his shirt at a news conference to display the bite mark. But Prakasham hurled molestation and caste abuse charges, telling a television show in the evening: "We only shouted slogans against the CM, like 'Chandy go back'. But then somebody twisted my hands and I felt a knee hit my back. I turned back to see Nair's face." Congress MLA P.C. Vishnunath countered her, saying the television clipping "clearly shows her story was cooked up". Prakasham did not deny the biting allegation.
About a dozen injured watch and ward staff and 20 MLAs who collapsed in exhaustion were taken to hospital. Most were later discharged.
As the in-House protests drew to an end, Mani shifted to the media room where he read out the budget in full.
The violence spilled over to the streets, where Left and BJP activists clashed with police. The Left has called a dawn-to-dusk hartal tomorrow to protest what it is describing as an attack on its MLAs.
Leaders from both sides graced TV debates and claimed victory. "It was our promise that none but K.M. Mani will present the budget and we made it happen," crowed the UDF. "Mani's budget presentation lacks legal sanctity as it was not done after following due procedure," the LDF shouted back.
