Opposition protests in Ker Assembly against police action on Congress workers

The Congress-led opposition UDF on Monday objected in the state Assembly, to the recent police action against workers of the party and its youth wing by holding up placards and attempting to draw the attention of the Speaker to the same when the question hour began in the House.

After Speaker A N Shamseer ignored the opposition attempts to draw his attention and directed commencement of question hour, the UDF MLAs quietened down, but kept displaying the placards brought into the House by them.

The placards, shown on visuals aired by Sabha TV, carried remarks like — ‘It is Kerala and not North Korea, Taliban or Russia’, ‘if Chief Minister is scared he should remain indoors’ and ‘police high-handedness and brutality’.

Congress MLA and leader of the party’s youth wing Shafi Parambil came into the House wearing a black shirt.

The opposition was protesting against the preventive detention of its party’s youth wing workers during Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s recent visits to various districts in the state.

The Congress has also claimed that police had ”cruelly attacked” protesting Youth Congress activists in Kalamassery in Ernakulam district of the state.

Several Youth Congress activists and some policemen suffered injuries when the march taken out by the workers, demanding the rollback of fuel cess and other tax proposals in the state budget, turned violent on February 21.