Chennai: Tamil Nadu Governor R. N. Ravi cut short an hour-long policy address prepared by the DMK government to mark the start of the state budget session to only three minutes Monday.
Ravi said he “convincingly disagreed” with many of the passages on moral and factual grounds and slammed the state government for “disrespecting” the national anthem.
“Friends, my repeated requests and advice to show due respect to the national anthem and play it at the beginning and end of the address have been ignored. This address contains numerous passages I convincingly disagree with on factual and moral grounds. Lending my voice to them would constitute a constitutional travesty. Hence, with due respect to the House, I conclude my speech,” the governor said.
Tamil Nadu Speaker M Appavu then read the Tamil version of the address.
While many states play the national anthem at the beginning and end of the governor’s address, the Tamil Nadu assembly begins the session with the state song, Tamil Thai Valthu, and ends it with the national anthem.
In his speech, Appavu accused the BJP-led central government of ignoring the state, which suffered considerable devastation due to Cyclone Michaung last December. He highlighted the state’s achievements in providing flood relief last year and organising the Khelo India Youth Games last month.
The Speaker ended by saying he did not want to blame the governor, but it was unnecessary for him to say everything that was on his mind, alluding to Ravi’s comments on not playing the national anthem.
“You (Ravi) said what’s on your mind. What we have on our mind is the cyclone and floods, and we didn’t receive any funds. PM CARES has a lot of money. Can we also ask for Rs 50,000 crore from it?” Appavu said.
The governor left the assembly after the speech and before the national anthem was played. The assembly then passed a resolution to consider the governor’s speech as fully delivered.
Ravi had skipped parts of the policy address last year, too. He had skipped portions referring to secularism and the Dravidian model and leaders such as Periyar, BR Ambedkar, and former chief ministers C.N. Annadurai and Karunanidhi. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had then moved a resolution to record only the original speech prepared by his government. He had also alleged that the governor walking off before the national anthem was against the tradition of the assembly.
Last month, similar scenes played out in the Kerala assembly when Governor Arif Mohammed Khan cut short the 61-page policy address to less than two minutes due to disagreements with the state government.
Ravi has had many disagreements with the state government during his stint. Last year, the chief minister had written to the President, saying Ravi was not fit to be governor. The Supreme Court, in November last year, had pulled up the governor for delays in clearing pending bills.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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