Governor RN Ravi Storms Out of Assembly in a Huff

Chennai: Governor R N Ravi stormed out of the State Legislative Assembly minutes after entering the hall on the first day of the House session in the New Year on Monday, refusing to read out the customary Governor’s Address, citing as reason the Speaker M Appavu’s refusal to allow the singing of the national anthem immediately after the Tamil anthem at the beginning of the day’s proceedings.

Chief Minister M K Stalin said it was unbecoming of the Governor to denigrate the democratically elected government in the State and the century-old Legislative Assembly repeatedly and wondered why someone who did not want to perform his Constitutional duties should stick to the post.

It was childish on the part of the Governor to have walked out of the House without reading out the Governor’s Address this time after deviating from the State government-prepared text by cutting out passages and incorporating his own words last year, Stalin said in a message on X. Last year the Governor walked out of the House without waiting for the singing of the national anthem as a resolution to include only the text prepared by the government in the House records.

Stalin said that it was part of the democratic tradition to start the Assembly session in a new year with the Governor’s Address, which was read out on Monday by the Speaker after the Governor left the House in a huff.

‘The National Anthem is sung or played at the beginning and after the Governor's address in every State Assembly in the country. It is also mandatory as per the National Anthem Code,’ a Raj Bhavan press release said, adding, ‘Even after repeated reminders conveyed well in advance, it is unfortunate that these requests were deliberately ignored.’

When the Governor reminded the House of its Constitutional duty and fervently appealed to the Chief Minister and Speaker for singing or playing the national anthem, it was cussedly refused, the release said.

Not singing or playing the National Anthem at the beginning of the Governor’s Address was a blatant disrespect to the Constitution and Nation Anthem and the Governor left the House in deep anguish, reaffirming his commitment to upholding the Constitutional values and to restore respect for the National Anthem in all State functions while upholding the Tamil pride.

However, Leader of the House and State Minister Duraimurugan, in the resolution that he moved on Monday, seeking the Speaker’s permission to relax Assembly Rule 17, to include in the Assembly records only the text prepared by the Government for the Governor to read out in, said the Speaker had already clarified to the Governor that tradition of the House was to sing the Tamil anthem at the beginning of the Governor’s Address and the national anthem at the end of it.

The Assembly’s tradition was explained in the reply to the Governor when he had raised the same issue through a letter to the Speaker last year, Duraimurugan said, adding that it makes Ravi’s intention to not read out the Governor’s Address questionable as he had once again raised the same issue.