Woman legislator defends biting Congress legislator

Left legislator Jameela Prakasham on Tuesday said she bit Congress member K. Sivadasan Nair because he grabbed her from behind during the turmoil in the assembly last week.

Prakasham, who came under widespread criticism in the social media for biting Nair on March 13, defended her aggression.

"If people see the visuals (of the house proceedings) carefully, they will know it was Nair who came behind me and attacked me," she said.

"He first hit me with his knee, then he wriggled closer to me and used his hands to grab me. I told him, 'Please leave me. Otherwise I will bite (you). He said you can bite, and I bit him," said Prakasham.

She accused Nair and two other senior Congress legislators, Dominic Presentation and Benny Behanan, of attacking her. This, she said, was done to "please" Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.

"This was happening right in front of the chief minister. He was a witness to the physical attack on me," she said.

"He says we can sit together and watch the recording. I ask him to bring his wife and children also to watch the recording," said Prakasham.

Nair told the media that the lady legislator was not speaking the truth.

"It's only now they talk about misbehaviour. I will also now come out and show the entire visuals because I want to challenge the allegations," he said.

On Tuesday morning, former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan paraded the five women Left leaders who he said had a tough time last week at the hands of Congress members.

The Marxist leader said the decision to suspend five Left legislators for the trouble in the house was one sided.

He said a few legislators from the ruling front had been left off though they misbehaved with women members.

"Let us see what we can do in this (case). We are not going to sit idle," he said.