CHENNAI: Making a thinly veiled attack on the BJP and taking a dim view of the governor not reading out the speech at the commencement of the Assembly session, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday said on behalf of the members of the House that “no one needs to give us a lesson on patriotism” and respect for the national anthem as “we are not inferior to anyone in national unity and love for the country”.
The CM was replying to the motion of thanks to the governor’s address in the Assembly.
“On behalf of the members of this House, I wish to firmly convey to Governor R N Ravi that we are second to none in national unity and patriotism,” the CM said, launching into a diatribe against the governor, who has been repeatedly accusing the House of not playing the national anthem at the start of the Assembly session.
Responding to the governor’s continued grouse that the national anthem is not sung at the beginning of the Assembly session and that being one of the reasons for refusing to read out the customary address, the CM said that the Thamizh Thaai Vaazhthu (Mother Tamil invocation) and national anthem are rendered at the beginning and end of the session, respectively, following the tradition of the House.
Alluding to the saffron party, the CM said, “They have no moral authority to give lessons on these subjects since they did not struggle for the nation. Those who seek to undermine the dignity of the Constitution of a democratic nation through authoritarian tendencies are the real anti-nationals. The people of this country know well who they are.”
Stalin said it is deeply painful that the governor, who is expected to function in the interests of Tamil Nadu, “continues to act against TN and us”, who are working tirelessly for the people.
“The governor’s decision to leave the House without reading the address he was required to deliver appears almost farcical. Moreover, he is bringing disrepute to the constitutional office he occupies by doing so. Acting in such a manner while holding a responsible constitutional position amounts to denigration of the Constitution itself,” the CM added.
Stalin said that on this day he was supposed to respond to the discussion on the motion of thanks to the governor’s address, but he was constrained to explain to the governor for his actions.
Stating that past chief ministers – Perarignar C N Annadurai, M Karunanidhi, M G Ramachandran, and J Jayalalithaa – never faced this kind of predicament, Stalin said that though differences existed between these leaders and governors, they never behaved in this manner.
Referring to the 13 reasons attributed by the governor’s office for his refusal to deliver the customary address, the CM gave a long list of his government’s achievements during the past five years in various spheres and how the union government had acknowledged the DMK government’s performance.
“Tamil Nadu has received more than 65 awards from the union government alone. Union Home Minister Amit Shah himself presented an award to the state cooperative bank for its outstanding service. Officials from various states visit Tamil Nadu to study our schemes with a view to implementing them in their own states. Even the union government has adopted several of our schemes and implemented them nationwide. Even after all these, the governor chose to criticise the state government. It only reflected his distorted perception (of facts),” the CM charged.