Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker calls Governor “descendant of Godse”, expunges RN Ravi’s remarks

It also alleged that the Speaker launched a tirade in the Assembly against the Governor and called him a “follower of Nathuram Godse” and hence Ravi, with due regard to the dignity of his office, left the House.

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After Appavu raised the issue of flood relief to the state and made some remarks, the Governor walked out of the House, before the national anthem was played, to mark the completion of proceedings for the day.

In the history of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, this is the first time a Governor has not read out his customary address to the House at the start of the session for a year. Last year, on 9 January, Ravi omitted some portions of the government-prepared address and also included some points on his own.

This was Ravi’s inaugural address for the year to the House.

Also Read: The speech that wasn’t delivered by Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi

Speaker Appavu reads the address

Ravi, after quoting a couplet from the Tamil classic “Tirukkural” and offering his greetings in Tamil to Speaker Appavu, Chief Minister MK Stalin, and legislators, ended his speech within a few minutes.

Immediately, Speaker Appavu read out the full Governor’s Address in Tamil and said that Ravi approved the government-prepared draft text. Though Ravi did not read out the full address, Appavu said he would not term it as a “lacuna”.

The Governor opined that the national anthem should have been played at the beginning, the Speaker said.

“Everyone will have opinions, discussing about them (in the House) is not the tradition. It is the culture of the Tamil Nadu government, and Chief Minister Stalin and MLAs to treat Governor Ravi, who is in a high position with honour and dignity notwithstanding the differences in policies, ideology. There is no change in that,” Appavu asserted.

The Speaker said that despite the state facing unprecedented rains and floods recently, the Union government did not give “a single paisa” of funds to Tamil Nadu, though the PM Care Fund has “several lakh crores”.

Referring to the Governor as “Ayya” (sir), Appavu said that he may as well ask him to get “from that fund” about which the people “cannot pose questions”, assistance to the tune of approximately ₹50,000 crore to Tamil Nadu.

As soon as Appavu completed making this statement in the House, Governor Ravi quickly walked out of the House even as the Speaker said on the microphone that the national anthem would be played after the passage of the resolution on including the customary address. However, Ravi continued and moved out of the House with officials in attendance.

Also Read: Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi skips speech in Assembly

Citing House rules

Leader of the House and Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan moved a resolution relaxing a rule to include the customary Governor’s address in Assembly records.

He said the 46-page text in both Tamil and English would figure in the Assembly records, and the resolution was passed by a voice vote.

Later, addressing reporters, Appavu said “personal” remarks made by Ravi during his address to the House were “expunged”.

“What he read (from the prepared speech) is fine. After that he made some personal remarks which have been expunged,” Appavu said.

To a question on the national anthem, on which Ravi made some remarks, the Speaker said that it is played at the end on the day of the Governor’s address.

Citing House rules, he said that the proceedings start with the Tamil invocation song “Tamil Thai Vazhthu”, followed by the Governor’s address, and upon completion of that, “finally, the national anthem is played.”

Prior to his address to the Assembly, the Governor is accorded a Guard of Honour where the national anthem is played, he added.