The Tamil Nadu Assembly gathered today, 12 February 2024, for the first session of this year (2024).
Governor R.N. Ravi extended his greetings to the Tamil Nadu Assembly in Tamil and expressed the honour he felt in delivering the inaugural address for the 2024 session. However, he noted with regret that his repeated requests to play the national anthem at the beginning and end of his address were disregarded.
He said, “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 has been ignored. This address has numerous passages with which I convincingly disagree on factual and moral grounds. I lending my voice to them would constitute constitutional travesty, hence with respect to the house, I conclude my address, wish this House a productive and healthy discussion for the good of the people. Vaazhga Tamil Nadu, Vaazhga Bharatham, Jai Hind, Jai Bharat, Nandri.”
His excellency Governor RN Ravi avl @rajbhavan_tn refuses to lend his voice to the script of the Dravidian model as it would be a travesty of constitutional morality he says . Also he urges the TN government to give due respect to the national anthem ! pic.twitter.com/eGPOB0ktOJ
— karthik gopinath (@karthikgnath) February 12, 2024
The governor emphasised that the address, given to him by the State government, to be read by the Governor, contained numerous passages with which he strongly disagreed – both on factual and moral grounds. He asserted that vocalising these points would be a constitutional travesty. His abrupt conclusion of the address in the assembly, sparked an uproar among the members.
In general, the Governor’s address would be around 40 minutes which would list out the achievements of the state government, especially the plans for the coming year. It would also state that the law and order situation of the state is good and that the TN government is successfully implementing law and order – these seem to have not gone down well with the Governor and thus he refused to read out the speech handed over to him by the state government.
The speech given to the Governor is usually in English and subsequently translated into Tamil by the Speaker. After this protest by the Governor, Speaker Appavu continued addressing the Assembly with the translated speech of what was originally given to the Governor.
ஆளுநர் உரையாக எனக்கு கொடுக்கப்பட்டுள்ள பல விவரங்கள் பொய்யானவை – ஆளுநர் ஆர்.என்.ரவி#TamilNadu #TNAssembly #TNGovernor #RNRavi #NewsTamil24x7 pic.twitter.com/3rPJ6jnxUZ
— News Tamil 24×7 | நியூஸ் தமிழ் 24×7 (@NewsTamilTV24x7) February 12, 2024
During the first day of the winter session in Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2023 also it was the same scenario. Despite the fact that the Raj Bhavan had communicated the changes required in the speech to the state government two days prior, there had been no response from the state government. It should be noted that DMK allies VCK, Congress, Tamilaga Vaazhvurimai Katchi, and others surrounded the governor as he began his speech, yelling “Get out Ravi! This is Tamil Nadu.” They prevented Governor RN Ravi from reading out his speech.
This time around, the Governor refused to read out what was given to him.
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