Tamil Nadu: Controversy Erupts Between Governor R N Ravi And CM MK Stalin Over Distorted State Anthem At DD Tamil Event

Chennai: A distorted version of the Tamil Nadu State anthem rendered at a DD Tamil official event blew up into a major row between Governor R N Ravi and Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday.

The Governor charged that Stalin had made a “racist remark” against him. “Making racist remark and alleging incorrect imputations against governor by the chief minister is unfortunately cheap and lowers the dignity of the high constitutional office of the chief minister. Since he rushed to public with his racist remarks and false imputations I am constrained to respond” the Governor said in a tweet.

It all began with with the singers at the event in which the Governor participated skipping a stanza from the Tamil anthem, which has a reference to the glory of the Dravidian land.

Reacting strongly to this, Stalin had in a tweet wondered if Ravi was a “Governor” or an “Aryan”. Arguing that omitting the stanza from the anthem was against law, the Chief Minister contended a person who does not act according to the law and acts according to his will is not fit to hold that office. “Will the Governor who suffers from Dravidian allergy ask them to leave out ‘Dravida’ in the national anthem,” he asked and said the Union Government should immediately recall the Governor, “who is deliberately insulting Tamil Nadu and the sentiments of the people of the State.”

Several other political party leaders to joined in condemned the Governor. Earlier in the day, Stalin had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi objecting to the combining of the Hindi month celebrations at DD Tamil with the golden jubilee of the Doordarshan Chennai.

Against this backdrop, the Governor’s media advisor, Thirugnana Sambandam had sought to distance the Raj Bhavan from the controversy. He said the Governor or his office has no role in this except that he participated in the programme. Contending that the stanza was inadvertently missed, he said, “The matter was immediately brought to the notice of the organisers and appropriate authorities area asked to look into the matter,” he said.

Soon thereafter, DD Tamil tweeted an apology. It claimed the reference to ‘Dravida’, was “inadvertently missed,” “which happened due to a distraction.” The Prasar Bharati said, there was no intention from the singers to disrespect Tamizh or Tamizh Thai Vazhthu (Tamil invocation anthem). “In this regard, we apologise for the inconvenience caused to the Hon’ble Governor of Tamil Nadu,” it said.

After this tweet, the Governor criticised the Chief Minister. “He (CM) knows it well that I recite full Tamizh Thaai Vaazhthu at every function and do so with reverence, pride and precision. He also knows that under leadership Hon'ble Prime Minister Thiru. @narendramodi the Central govt has proudly created several institutions for spread of Tamil language and heritage within India including Tamil Nadu and several countries of the world. #PMModi took Tamil even to the United Nations,” the Governor tweeted.

“As a proud Indian I myself have taken numerous substantive initiatives to spread Tamil, the oldest and richest living language, in other states of the country, the latest being to set up , with cooperation of the Assam govt, a Tamil diploma course in Gauhati University for spread of Tamil in the North East,” he added.

At the time of filing this report around 8 pm, the Chief Minister was yet to respond to the Governor’s charge.