Tamil Nadu Governor and CM clash over state anthem blunder

Chennai: Singers missed a line from Tamil Nadu’s state anthem during its rendition in an event presided by Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi here on Friday and it led to a war of words between Chief Minister M K Stalin and Ravi besides resulting in a political uproar.

In the Doordarshan Kendra Chennai’s Hindi month valedictory function, a sentence “Thekkanamum adhil sirantha Dravida nal thiru naadum” went missing when the singers sang the anthem at the DD Tamil office here.

Reacting to it, the chief minister accused the governor of insulting the unity of the country, Tamil Nadu and its people and demanded that he be recalled by the Centre. He said that a person who doesn’t abide by the law and acts as per his wishes was not fit to hold that office and wondered if Ravi was a governor or an ‘Aryan.’

AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami strongly condemned the omission and said it was a blunder and other parties including Congress condemned the Governor.Ravi termed Stalin’s reaction as regrettable and accused the CM of making a racist remark against him and for having levelled, “false allegation of showing disrespect to Tamizh Thaai Valthu.”Ravi said the allegation against him was “unfortunately cheap and lowers the dignity of the high constitutional office of the chief minister.”

Meanwhile, Doordarshan Kendra Chennai apologised for ‘inadvertent mistake,’ and said singers had no intention to disrespect Tamil or Tamizh Thaai Valthu, the state song.