Old rivals meet, recall tales of golden days at assembly reunion in Kerala
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As senior leaders started walking into the Sankaranarayanan Thampi Hall of the assembly, ex-MLA PC George shook hands with Speaker A N Shamseer and had a light conversation with CPM leader P K Sreemathy.
Politics took a back seat when politicians met their contemporaries to make way for a delightful event, the 'Peythozhiyunna Ormakal' programme in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. Over 146 ex-MLAs participated in the event that honoured them, along with other MLAs who completed 25 years in the assembly, former assembly secretaries, senior journalists and retired employees of the assembly.
Inaugurating the function, Shamseer said that the ceremony is similar to alumni meetings held on campuses, drawing parallels between the legislative assembly and a university.
'Even though the MLAs have heated debates inside the assembly hall, we do not have any issue with each other outside. That is the beauty of democracy,' the Speaker hailed the democratic values followed by politicians in Kerala. Mentioning that the state assembly has a rich legacy on its own, he also added that a Kerala model can be considered not just in health and education sectors, but also in the effective organisation of assembly sessions.
'It is indeed a delight to see the senior leaders who have worked alongside us,' senior Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan told TNIE. Stating that many of them have made risky moves and made sharp decisions at the right time, he mentioned that he respectfully admires these leaders. 'I was also part of the 24-hour-long assembly session in which K R Gowri Amma passed the Anti-corruption Bill,' ex-minister J Mercykutty Amma told TNIE, as she walked down memory lane.
Relatively a fresher, Congress' Chandy Oommen too expressed his happiness of seeing seasoned politicians who worked as his father's contemporaries to shape Kerala.
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