Thiruvananthapuram: Police action against SFI workers triggered a heated exchange in the assembly on Monday. CPM MLA V Joy arrived in the house carrying a broken police baton, and the opposition staged a walkout after speaker Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan denied permission for an adjournment motion on the issue.Moving the notice for the adjournment motion, Joy demanded that the home minister take action to rein in police personnel over their handling of the incident. He displayed the broken baton, which he said was evidence of the police action against the students.Home minister Ramesh Chennithala, however, disputed Joy’s version and alleged that the MLA had taken possession of a police baton and brought it to the assembly. He said the incident at the university men’s hostel was triggered after students threw beer bottles from the hostel at Youth Congress workers protesting against CEC Gyanesh Kumar. He asked why the SFI activists were getting infuriated when the protest was against the BJP govt at Centre.Chennithala said those staying at the hostel were not necessarily students and several people had been residing there for a long time. He suggested that the higher education minister investigate the matter to establish who was staying there.Rejecting allegations that police were taking a different approach from that followed by the previous govt, Chennithala said the same police force that served during LDF’s 10 years in office continued under the present dispensation. Govt hadn’t brought in personnel from Tamil Nadu, he said.Chennithala defended police against what he described as attempts to intimidate personnel tasked with maintaining law and order. Marches to police officers’ houses and physical attacks on them couldn’t be accepted, he said.Leader of the opposition Pinarayi Vijayan said the hostel residents hadn’t engaged in provocation except for creating a disturbance when power supply went off during a Youth Congress march. He alleged that police used the incident as a pretext to attack the men’s hostel.Ambalappuzha MLA G Sudhakaran intervened in the discussion, asking that the broken baton brought by Joy be examined. The speaker informed the house that the baton would be examined. After the speaker denied permission for the adjournment motion, the opposition walked out of the house in protest.
