KOZHIKODE: LDF MLA K T Jaleel has said he shouldn’t have upturned the Assembly Speaker’s chair during the agitation against then finance minister K M Mani in 2015. “I should not have touched the chair. It was a mistake. After all, we are human beings. It may have happened in an emotional moment,” he said in reply to a comment on his Facebook post on Teacher’s Day.

“The ink of the Guru is holier than the blood of the martyrs,” he wrote in the post, quoting the words of Prophet Muhammad. A person who commented said Jaleel should not have pulled down the Speaker’s chair during the agitation.

Many users saw the post as belittling martyrs. Some felt Jaleel was insulting martyrs who had sacrificed their lives for the party. However, Jaleel said he quoted the words only to highlight the importance of knowledge.

Jaleel’s remarks come amid rumours of him planning to return to the IUML fold. It is the first time an LDF MLA is publicly saying the act of pulling down the Speaker’s chair was wrong.

LDF had staged the agitation against Mani, who was embroiled in the bar bribery allegation, when he came to the House to present the budget in March 2015.