Demand for recalling Governor revived

Chennai: The demand for the recalling of Governor R N Ravi by the President was revived on Wednesday by the TNCC president K S Alagiri, who said the Governor had acted beyond the powers bestowed on him by the Constitution by not approving of the appointments made by the State government to the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC), including former DGP C Sylendra Babu as chairperson.

In a statement, Alagiri said the Governor had powers to write to the Universities in the State without the State government’s permission and questioned him for asking the vice chancellors not to follow the common syllabus prepared by the government.

While the DMK organization secretary R S Bharathi accused the Governor of having ulterior motives in rejecting the appointments, the State government was looking for ways to circumvent the situation.

The latest development relating to the Governor not concurring with the TNPSC appointments and telling VCs that they need not follow the government's policy decisions only threaten to worsen the governor-government relationship that had already touched an all time low.

The governor came under severe attack from the DMK's youth wing secretary and Minister for Sports Development Udhayanidhi Stalin on Sunday when a hunger strike was organised to protest against the Union Government's refusal to grant exemption to Tamil Nadu from Neet.

Udhayanidhi Stalin had even challenged the Governor to contest an election in the State to prove his popularity and then interfere in the Government. Not only the video of the speech made in Chennai was carried by the media channels, it also went viral on social networking sites.