Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has called on Governor R N Ravi to distance himself from divisive forces and perform his duties according to constitutional norms if he wishes to remain in office.
Stalin’s remarks come amid a heated exchange between the two leaders over the omission of a line from the Tamil anthem during its rendition at a recent event attended by the governor.
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Stalin questioned why Ravi did not immediately condemn the omission of the line, which refers to the greatness of the Dravidian land in the Deccan.”You say you can sing Tamil Thai Valthu with complete devotion, but why did you not immediately condemn when the singers missed a line pertaining to Dravida?,” CM asked Ravi.
The incident took place during the valedictory ceremony for Hindi month at Doordarshan Tamil, where a singing troupe inadvertently skipped the line: “Thekkanamum Adhil sirantha Dravida Nal Thiru naadum” Doordarshan Kendra later clarified and apologised for the oversight.
Reacting strongly to Ravi’s comments regarding the incident, Stalin stated, “you have said that it was unfortunately cheap for a chief minister to make racist comments against a governor with false allegations. Governor, Tamil is our race, our lifeblood.”
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He emphasised that Tamils have sacrificed their lives for the Tamil language, which he claimed laid the foundation for the first constitutional amendment. “If discriminating against our mother tongue is racism then it is our pride!” Stalin said in a post on the social media platform ‘X’.
Stalin also questioned the governor’s assertion that Prime Minister Narendra Modi promoted Tamil on international platforms, asking what the central government has done to support the Tamil language. He noted that the Centre has consistently allocated substantial funds to promote Sanskrit instead.
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“If the BJP-led government’s affinity for Tamil was real, then what prevented the government from declaring the Tamil treatise Thirukkural as a national book?” he asked, accusing the Centre of imposing Hindi on non-Hindi-speaking states.
In response to the controversy, Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin expressed a desire not to escalate the issue, stating, “They have apologised, let’s see,” when asked for his comments.