CHENNAI: The first session of the state Assembly in 2025 will begin on January 6 with the customary address of Governor RN Ravi. The session is expected to last for five or six days.
Given the governor’s face-off with the DMK government and the Assembly witnessing high drama during his last two addresses, suspense runs high whether his address to the House on January 6 will happen peacefully.
Ravi, after assuming office on September 18, 2021, had said the relationship between his office and the state government is a new and clean state. “My effort will be to make it as beautiful as possible in days to come,” he had said.
The governor’s first address to the Assembly on January 5, 2022 went off peacefully. However, the relationship between the government and the governor went downhill subsequently over multiple issues. On January 9, 2023, he left the House abruptly soon after his address when Chief Minister MK Stalin moved a resolution that the governor’s speech as prepared by the government will go into Assembly records, and not as delivered by Ravi, who omitted certain phrases and passages, mentioning “Dravidian model” and the state being a haven of peace. On February 12, 2024, the governor refused to read the address prepared by the state government except for the introductory part as he did not agree with the content and walked out.
With the governor and government at loggerheads again this week over the constitution of search committees for selecting vice chancellors for six universities, there is little hope that the Ravi’s address on January 6 would be without controversies.
When the question was posed to Speaker M Appavu on Friday he said the government was not responsible for the previous controversies and expressed hope that the governor will deliver his full speech this time as prepared by the government.
Asked whether a request will be made to the Governor to read out the full speech, Appavu said, “ We can’t make such a request”. He, however, stressed due respect will be accorded to the Governor.
Appavu further said that as per Article 176 (1) of the Constitution, which enables the governor to deliver the address, he can only to deliver the prepared speech and not express his views.