Tamil Nadu governor refuses to read out address to House; leaves before national anthem

CHENNAI: In another governor vs govt tussle, this time in Tamil Nadu, R N Ravi on Monday declined to read out speech prepared by M K Stalin regime and walked out of assembly before national anthem was played.

Ravi made a three-minute speech and later issued a press release from Raj Bhavan saying customary address prepared by govt “contained numerous passages with misleading claims and facts and reading them would have amounted to governor’s address becoming a constitutional travesty”.

Governor accuses Tamil Nadu government of ignoring advice on policy address changes

TN governor’s action comes weeks after his Kerala counterpart, Arif Mohammed Khan, had last month cut short his customary policy address in assembly to mark beginning of budget session to one minute and 18 seconds, shortest such speech in Kerala House’s history. Both Kerala and Tamil Nadu are opposition-governed states.

Ravi’s statement accused TN govt of ignoring his advice on changes to policy address and said that assembly speaker M Appavu, with his “unbecoming conduct”, lowered dignity of the chair. In January last year, too, governor had walked out after his address in protest of Stalin’s decision to move a resolution to record text prepared by govt.

On Monday, leader of House Duraimurugan moved a resolution to record Ravi’s address to assembly prepared by govt. It was put to voice vote, and unanimously adopted by assembly. DMK allies and opposition, including AIADMK, PMK, and BJP legislators, remained seated throughout the proceedings and did not object to resolution being passed. Finally, Appavu announced that “no remarks”, including that of governor and his own, and barring the policy address, would go on record.

Soon after his arrival at 9.59am, and after the Tamil Thai Vazhthu (Tamil anthem) was played, Ravi greeted members in Tamil and read out first paragraph of address that contained a couplet of Thirukkural. He skipped rest of text after making certain remarks that were later expunged, and took his seat in three minutes. “Governor with due regard to constitutional proprieties expressed his inability to read the address as it contained numerous passages with misleading claims,” Raj Bhavan statement said. In evening, official handle of Raj Bhavan on X posted a 3.17-minute video of governor’s address, including his expunged remarks.

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