Jaya assures that oppn parties will be given due importance

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, whose AIADMK recently captured power with an overwhelming majority, today assured that opposition parties will be given due importance in order to maintain parliamentary democracy.

'Keeping with the ideals of (Dravidian veteran) C N Annadurai, the ruling party will not hesitate to respect views of the opposition, despite the very limited number of seats won by them," she said while felicitating her party's D Jayakumar and P Dhanapal who were selected as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the 14th Tamil Nadu Assembly.

She assured that the opposition views would be respected in order to uphold and maintain parliamentary democracy and AIADMK would be committed for this purpose.

Jayalalithaa, who was sworn-in as head of the state for the third time last week, insisted that the newly elected Speaker and his deputy should be unbiased and dispassionate while discharging their duty.

Taking a dig at the previous DMK regime, she charged that opposition members were not treated properly and evicted at the drop of the hat or were not responded to when they greeted members in the ruling benches.

The Chief Minister said she was not recalling such things to charge anyone but said she was doing so that Tamil culture and values beyond political lines were upheld in the present term.

Jayalalithaa said Parliament had come into existence in England even as the monarchy was still in vogue. The person chosen to convey the decision of Parliament on certain issues relating to the King was called the Speaker, she said.

"When decisions against the King's wishes were conveyed to him, he ordered the execution of the Speaker. Therefore, the person who would be selected as Speaker in the Assembly would try to run away and it was the Leader of the House and Opposition Leader who would catch him and lead him to the Chair," she said, resulting in peels of laughter even as the DMK benches led by party's Legislature Leader M K Stalin did not react.

Jayalalithaa assured Speaker Jayakumar that he would'nt face a situation of wanting to run away from the House.

Jayakumar, in his acceptance speech, said that he would not display any bias to or against the ruling and opposition benches and sought the cooperation of all concerned for the smooth conduct of the 234-member House.