TN Governor Ravi refuses to read address in Assembly over national anthem

Chennai: Governor R.N. Ravi refused to read out the customary ‘Governor’s address,’ prepared by the state government, in the legislative Assembly on Monday on the start of the first session of the year, saying it contained misleading passages and then abruptly walked out before the playing of the national anthem, objecting to Speaker M Appavu’s remarks on him and the passing of a resolution on not including his words in the House records.

In what was reminiscent of the inaugural of the 2023 Assembly session, the Governor, after addressing the Speaker, Chief Minister, members of the House and the people of the state declared that it would be a constitutional travesty if he proceeded further other than reading out the Thirukkural couplet with which the speech started.

However, the Governor, after stopping his address, sat through the proceedings when the Speaker presented the Tamil version to the House and staged a walkout when the Speaker made some remarks that were subsequently expunged and as the leader of the House Duraimurugan moved a resolution to not include any of the Governor’s statements other than what was in the prepared address in the House records.

The resolution that was moved by relaxing Assembly Rule 17 by Duraimurugan was adopted unanimously as the Speaker called for a vote on it.
Last year, the Governor had read out the address but added and omitted passages on his own and walked out in a huff when Chief Minister M.K. Stalin moved the resolution to take into record the full address prepared by the government without anything added by Mr Ravi, who was not present in the hall when the national anthem was played.

On Monday, too, he had left by the time the national anthem was played, marking the end of the Governor’s address, though one of his grouses had been that the session did not start with the national anthem. Though the Speaker clarified that the tradition in the state was to start the proceedings by singing the Tamil anthem (Tamil Thai Vazhthu) and closing the session by playing the national anthem, the Governor had dug his heels in.

Reacting to the incident that went to demonstrate that relations between the Governor and the Chief Minister had not improved a bit after they both met at the behest of the Supreme Court that had asked them to meet and resolve their differences.

Though the meeting in December-end was touted as ‘cordial’ at that time, providing an opportunity for the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues to take up the issue relating to pending bills, it had not helped iron out the differences that are basically at the ideological level.

While the Governor took to social media to air his grievances on the state government not complying with him in the preparation of the address, political leaders in the state reacted to Mr Ravi’s refusal to read out the address, prepared by the state government.

TNCC president K.S. Alagiri, in a statement, accused him of acting against the Constitution and said his actions would only earn the wrath of the people, who were only angry with him for his controversial statements of the past.

BJP leader in the Assembly Nainar Nagendran, however, was defensive of the Governor and said that he was waiting for the playing of the national anthem when the Speaker made some remarks that provoked him to walk out of the House.