CHENNAI: The DMK on Wednesday submitted a memorandum seeking to have Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi recalled at the office of the President in New Delhi. The party had planned to meet President Droupadi Murmu and hand over the memorandum signed by MPs of the DMK-led alliance. However, it was unable to get an appointment and did not want to delay the matter, party sources said.
The governor and the MK Stalin-led government have been at loggerheads over a number of issues, including the NEET Bill. Ravi’s recent remarks over the state government’s ‘delay’ in handing over the probe into Coimbatore blast to the National Investigation Agency have not gone down well with the ruling dispensation.
“In recent times, the retired bureaucrats who are/were faithful to the ruling party in the Union Government, are offered the post of Governor as quid pro quo. These persons do not have the basic knowledge, integrity and impartiality to hold the office of Governor and become an embarrassment to the government and people of the state.
The image of the Governor as merely an agent of the Union sitting in state capitals and desperately seeking an opportunity to run down the state government when it is in the hands of a party opposed to the party ruling at the Centre will deform our cooperative federalism and destroy our democracy,” the memorandum alleged.
The DMK also submitted a list of 20 bills passed by Assembly but pending with Ravi, including one that seeks to confer the power of appointing Vice Chancellors to the TN government instead of the governor.
Meanwhile, a section in the DMK questioned the move and said the party should instead take the issue to the people. These party members highlighted the pattern of governors’ activities in other states ruled by parties opposing BJP. “We should embark on an campaign to show the people how the BJP is using Raj Bhavan as a tool to trouble non-BJP state governments,” said a senior leader.
‘Nothing came from aiadmk memorandum to recall guv in 1995’
Veteran journalist and political observer Tharasu Shyam said, “In 1995 when AIADMK was in power, the then state government adopted a resolution in the Assembly urging the recall of the then Governor Channa Reddy. Nothing came of it. Now too we may not expect any outcome.
But, the sentiment can bring together the parties facing the same issues with governors in support of the Congress.” Some observers said the move will bring the issue to the limelight at the national level. “Even the DMK leadership knows that nothing may come out of the memorandum. But it will bring the issue to the notice of national parties and help them form a campaign for 2024 Lok Sabha polls by upping the ante against the BJP,” veteran journalist T Koodalarasan said.
Govt-Governor: Tense ties in TN
The DMK government in Tamil Nadu has been at odds with Governor RN Ravi for months. Along with its memorandum seeking to have him recalled, the party has submitted a list of 20 bills awaiting his nod