The Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker with his “unbecoming conduct lowered the dignity of his Chair and grace of the House,” the Raj Bhavan said on Monday, February 12, 2024 hours after the House witnessed dramatic scenes with Governor R.N. Ravi leaving the House. The Governor also did not read out his customary address to the House.
“While the Speaker went on his tirade against the Governor, the Governor with due regard to the dignity of his office and the House left the House,” an official communication from the Raj Bhavan stated.
When the Speaker concluded the address, the Governor rose for the national anthem, as scheduled, it said. “However, the Speaker instead of following the schedule launched a tirade against the Governor and called him a follower of Nathuram Godse and more,” the release contended.
The Raj Bhavan also explained that the draft Governor’s address was received at the Raj Bhavan, from the State government on February 9. The address had numerous passages with “misleading claims far from truth.”
The Governor returned the file with specific advice, ”To show due respect to the National Anthem and play it at the beginning and end of the Governor’s address. In this regard, Governor had written letters to the Chief Minister and the Speaker in the past also.”
The Raj Bhavan said, The Governor’s address should reflect Government’s achievements, policies and programmes and to inform the house of the “causes of its summons” and should not be a forum for peddling misleading statements and venting blatantly partisan political views.”
The Government “chose to ignore” the advice of the Governor, it said. The Governor in his address to the House at 10:00 am Monday, greeted the Speaker, the Chief Minister, the members of the House and the people of Tamil Nadu, and read out the first paragraph which contained a Kural (738) of the renowned saint Tiruvalluvar.
“Thereafter, Hon’ble Governor with due regard to the constitutional proprieties expressed his inability to read the address as it contained numerous passages with misleading claims and facts and reading them would have amounted to Governor’s address becoming a constitutional travesty,” it said.
He expressed his respect to the house, wished the session to be productive for the good of our people of Tamil Nadu and concluded. Thereafter the Speaker read the Tamil version of the address. The Governor sat through it till the conclusion of address.
