It has become usual for Congress MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan to use any opportunity he gets in the Assembly to put Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his family in the dock. On Thursday, ignoring ear-splitting shouts of ruling benches and the furious objections of Speaker A N Shamseer, Kuzhalnadan not only dared Pinarayi Vijayan to stand by his earlier statement that he was not the PV mentioned in the report of the Income Tax Interim Settlement Board but also hurled a new bribery allegation against the CM's daughter.
"Till now we have heard only of bribes from CMRL (Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited)," Kuzhalnadan said while taking part in a discussion on the Industries and Agriculture departments in the Assembly.
He held up a thick set of documents and quoted from what he said was a notice issued by the Registrar of Companies (RoC): "From the bank statement produced it could be seen that the company (Veena Vijayan's Exalogic) has been regularly, almost every month, receiving amounts from various charitable organisations, institutions etc."
Then he said: "We are people who donate our money to charity homes. How can the Chief Minister's daughter extract monthly bribes from destitute homes?" The Congress MLA had to strain his voice over the angry shouts of the ruling MLAs and the Speaker's repeated attempts to rein him in.
"Can you deny that you have not received the money from charitable organisations? I am quoting from a RoC document," he said, and added: "How can anyone accept the acceptance of bribes from destitute homes?"
Before levelling this charge, Kuzhalnadan wanted to know whether the CM stuck to what he told the people of Kerala. "He had said that he was not the PV mentioned in the report and that the abbreviation could stand for many others," Kuzhalnadan said. "Now the High Court has issued a notice to Pinarayi Vijayan. This is the chance for you to walk your talk. If you still stand by what you said, you should have the integrity to say in court that you are not the PV mentioned in the report," he said.
Many other abbreviations, all traced to politicians like Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala and P K Kunhalikutty, have also been found in the report. Pinarayi was the only politician who had refused to accept that the abbreviation that seemed to denote him was his.
"If the CM can prove that he is not the PV in the report I will resign as MLA. Now an opportunity has come up for the CM to prove that he is not PV. Let us see if he is up to it," Kuzhalnadan said.
The moment Kuzhalnadan mentioned the CMRL bribe (maasappady) issue, the Speaker intervened. "This is not the place to speak about this. You have been repeating this ad nauseam. You can't use this platform for the benefit of channels and social media," the Speaker tried to cut him short.
The Congress MLA's mention of the High Court notice to the Chief Minister caused the Speaker to turn more aggressive. "You cannot bring a subject under the consideration of courts to the Assembly. It is sub judice, you cannot mention it here," the Speaker said.
Kuzhalnadan was heard shouting back. "Why are you getting so worked up at the mere mention of the bribery case? You are deliberately killing my time," he said. He was also heard telling the Speaker that it was not the Chair who was supposed to decide what a member should speak. The Speaker cut Kuzhalnadan off the moment his allotted eight minutes was over.
