'Atrocious,' Says Stalin About Being Locked Out Of Office As Penalty

Chennai: On Day 1 of his week-long ban from the Tamil Nadu assembly, opposition leader MK Stalin and 87 of his colleagues spent the morning at the gates of the building, alleging that they're being unfairly barred from using facilities including the office that Mr Stalin uses.

"There's no ban on using the office or the library. They've locked the room and entrance No. 4 to prevent our MLAs from coming in. This is unfair and atrocious," said Mr Stalin, who was carried out the assembly yesterday by guards of marshals after his party's legislators disrupted proceedings.
 The DMK, which is headed by Mr Stalin's father, MK Karunanidhi, has 89 legislators. All 80 who were present yesterday were suspended for a week by the Speaker after they protested against what they described as offensive remarks about Mr Stalin by a member of the ruling AIADMK.

DMK spokespersons have compared the ban to the crushing of democratic rights during the Emergency of the 70s and accuse Chief Minister Jayalalithaa of engineering the week-long exile to prevent the opposition from participating in important talks and decisions on legislation.