Governor Ravi walks out without reading customary address

Chennai: In the fourth such instance, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi on Tuesday walked out of the state Assembly without reading his customary address after alleging that the national anthem was insulted, evoking a sharp response from Chief Minister M K Stalin, who dubbed his action as an “insult” to the House and the people of the state.

Stalin, also the DMK president, said his party will work with “like-minded” parties to amend the Constitution to omit provisions mandating the Governor’s address to the state legislature.

The high drama on the opening day of the year’s first session, which is also expected to be the last before the upcoming Assembly polls that are expected to be held in the next four months, started a few minutes after the state anthem in Tamil was rendered in the House.

Beginning in 2023, this was the fourth such consecutive walkout by Ravi, who cited “unsubstantiated claims and misleading statements” for not reading out the policy statement, while Speaker M Appavu requested him to stick to the state-prepared text. As Speaker Appavu began reading out the Tamil version of the state-prepared governor’s address after Ravi left abruptly, the main Opposition AIADMK staged a walkout alleging law and order failure, and other Opposition parties, including the PMK, followed suit.

In the governor’s address read out by the Speaker, the Tamil Nadu govt urged the Centre to withdraw the recently passed VB-G RAM G Act and restore the UPA-era rural employment scheme, MGNREGA.

While the Assembly adopted a resolution moved by Stalin stating that only the government prepared customary address would go on official record after Ravi’s walkout, the Lok Bhavan quickly released a statement claiming to give an explanation of what transpired inside the House.

Alleging that the mic of the Governor was turned off in the Assembly, the Lok Bhavan listed 12 other points, all of which were dismissed by the Tamil Nadu government as “baseless and false”.

While Ravi had been demanding that the national anthem be played at the commencement of the customary address, the govt’s stand is that the Tamil anthem is traditionally played at the beginning, and the national anthem at the end.