CHENNAI: Chief Minister M K Stalin on Friday demanded the immediate recall of Governor RN Ravi after the phrase "Dravida nal Thirunadu" was allegedly omitted from the Tamil anthem during an event attended by the Governor on Friday.
"Governor, are you an Aryan? Removing the word Dravidian and chanting Tamil Thai greetings is against the law of Tamil Nadu! A person who does not act according to the law and acts according to his will is not fit to hold that office. In the guise of celebrating India, the governor is insulting the unity of the country and the people of different races living in this land," said Stalin in a post on X.
"Will the governor who suffers from Dravidian allergy ask them to leave out Dravidian in the national anthem? The Union Government should immediately recall the Governor who is deliberately insulting Tamil Nadu and the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu," he added.
Stalin also strongly condemned the Doordarshan Kendra Chennai's Hindi month valedictory function in which Governor Ravi presided as chief guest.
Stalin, registering his protest, said in a multilingual nation, celebrating Hindi month in non-Hindi-speaking states, "is seen as an attempt to belittle" other languages.
"I strongly condemn the celebration of Hindi Month valedictory function along with the golden jubilee celebrations of Chennai Doordarshan. Hon'ble @PMOIndia, The Constitution of India does not grant national language status to any language," the Chief Minister said in a post on 'X'.
Furthermore, he said: "Therefore, I suggest that holding such Hindi-oriented events in non-Hindi speaking states could be avoided, and instead, the celebration of the local language month in the respective states should be encouraged."
DMK students' wing members protested in front of the DD Tamil office where the governor attended the valedictory this evening.
The wing's president R Rajiv Gandhi said the BJP-led government was consistently involved in attempts to impose Hindi on the non-Hindi speaking states.
"This is condemnable. The DMK and a majority of political parties in the state are opposing the move to thrust Hindi on Tamil Nadu. But, the Centre is only adding fuel to the fire," Gandhi told reporters later.
AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami strongly condemned the omission and said it was a blunder.
"It was a blunder to skip the words. This is highly condemnable. The word Dravidam is a great revolution against oppression," Palaniswami said on 'X'.
"The word Dravidian stood for the world's oldest civilisation. Whoever has omitted it hurt the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu and belittles the Dravidian culture and such actions should be stopped," he added.
Responding to Chief Minister Stalin's remarks, Governor Ravi termed it as as regrettable and racist.
Ravi said the allegation against him was "unfortunately cheap and lowers the dignity of the high constitutional office of the chief minister."
"As a proud Indian I myself have taken numerous substantive initiatives to spread Tamil, the oldest and richest living language, in other states of the country, the latest being to set up , with cooperation of the Assam govt, a Tamil diploma course in Gauhati University for spread of Tamil in the North East," Ravi said adding that he was "constrained to respond" since CM Stalin "rushed to public with his racist remarks and false imputations."
Meanwhile, Doordarshan Kendra Chennai apologised for 'inadvertent mistake,' and said singers had no intention to disrespect Tamil or Tamizh Thaai Valthu, the state song.
"We apologise for the inadvertent mistake. There was no intention from the singers to disrespect Tamil or Tamizh Thaai Valthu. In this regard, we apologise for the inconvenience caused to the Hon'ble Governor of Tamil Nadu," a statement from Doordarshan Tamil said.
The Tamizh Thaai Valthu was made the state anthem after M K Stalin became Chief Minister in 2021.
The song was authored by Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai.
The DD event also marked beginning of the golden jubilee celebrations of Doordarshan Chennai, which commenced operations here in 1975.
