CHENNAI: In a significant development, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday wrote to the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, contending that Governor R N Ravi “instigates communal hatred” and is a “threat” to Tamil Nadu’s peace and stating he is “fit to be removed from high office”.
According to a statement shared by the state government, Stalin said Ravi has violated the oath of office he took under Article 159 of the constitution. “Ravi is stoking communal hatred, and he is a threat to TN’s peace,” Stalin wrote. “By way of his behaviour and action, the governor has proved to be partial and ineligible to hold the office of governor; Ravi is fit to be removed from the high office.”
Since taking charge in TN in September 2021, Stalin charged, Ravi has engaged in an “ideological and political battle with the lawfully elected state government headed by the DMK”. He accused Ravi of publicly professing his lack of faith in secular ideals and said he has been “unabashedly propagating unwanted, divisive and religious utterances in public”. Stalin cited Ravi’s comment on September 9, 2022 that “India is dependent on one religion like the rest of the world”.
The CM said this statement is an affront to the constitution on which India relies rather than on any religion. He said Ravi had criticised, slandered and vilified the concept of federalism, terming it as one made for “administrative purposes”.
Stalin pointed to Ravi’s delay in granting approval to prosecute the former AIADMK ministers while acting in haste against DMK minister V Senthil Balaji, booked for his role in a cash-for-jobs scam, by dismissing him from the cabinet and then retracting the decision.
CM Stalin accuses guv of ‘supporting criminals’ in letter
He termed this a gross constitutional breach and argued it showed the governor’s political bias. Stalin recalled Ravi’s statements against Dravidian politics that stood at odds with the state’s accomplishments. The CM also accused the governor of “supporting criminals and interfering with investigations”, citing his backing of the dikshithars accused of having conducted child marriages in Chidambaram and his allegations that the victims had been made to undergo the banned two-finger test. Stalin claimed Ravi’s record as governor of Nagaland did not speak well for him.
“In fact, after he was removed as governor of Nagaland, the president of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party in Nagaland stated that there is ‘a relief in Nagaland’,” he said. Stalin concluding by saying he was leaving it to the President to decided whether Ravi’s continuation in office would be desirable, considering the dignity of India’s founding fathers.