DMK moves privilege complaint against Minister Nirmal Kumar over Karunanidhi remarks

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has lodged a breach of privilege complaint with Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar against Minister for Energy Resources and Law C.T.R. Nirmal Kumar, accusing him of furnishing false information to the House during the recently concluded Budget session.

The complaint, submitted on Tuesday, was filed by DMK MLAs M.R.K. Panneerselvam, Vasantham K. Karthikeyan, E. Raja and Kadhar Batcha alias Muthuramalingam.

Speaking to reporters at the Secretariat in Chennai after filing the complaint, DMK Whip E.V. Velu and Mr. Panneerselvam said the Minister had spoken against former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi in the Assembly in violation of the rules and conventions of the House, negatively portraying him through references to the Sarkaria Commission report.

The legislators said the party had already raised objections to Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's speech on the same issue, and that despite this, the Minister continued to provide what they described as false information.

They further alleged that Mr. Kumar had negatively portrayed Vaithilingam, A.L. Srinivasan and H.V. Rao, who served as secretaries to Mr. Karunanidhi and were not members of the House. Levelling allegations against persons who were not present in the Assembly was against its rules and conventions, they contended.

The DMK members argued that even when there is a need to speak about a member present in the House, Assembly rules require that the details be communicated in advance to the Speaker and to the member concerned. They alleged that the remarks were made without any such prior intimation.

The legislators have urged that the matter be referred to the Privileges Committee.