Launching a scathing attack on Governor RN Ravi for staging a walkout without delivering the customary Governor’s address for a third time in a row, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday announced that the ruling DMK will take concerted efforts for a Constitutional amendment to dispense with the practice of governor reading out the address in the House.
“The intransigence of the governor in not delivering the address year after year is unacceptable as it doesn’t bode well. Not only here, governors are remaining stumbling blocks in many other states as well. And this can’t be left as though it is news for that day. When the governor continuously violates the established practice of reading out the address, outlining the policies and programmes of the government, the question naturally arises in everybody’s mind as to why we should have such a statutory provision,” he said, after the House passed a resolution making the address deemed to have been read.
“Yet another time, the governor, violating the statutory rules and conventions, has walked out. Indeed, he had gone out. His action is unbecoming of the office he holds. As per Article 176 of the Constitution, the Governor’s address, prepared by the state government, has to be read out in toto. There is no scope in the Constitution either to interpolate or guillotine anything in the address. Though there is no place to seek clarification in the constitutional scheme, we have obliged him through a letter dated yesterday. As such, the wanton act of the governor is unconstitutional,” Stalin fumed, adding, “The governor’s act is in insult to the century-old tradition and convention of the House.”
“The DMK will work with like-minded political parties in Parliament for a Constitutional amendment,” he asserted to the thumping of the desks by the treasury benches with the Opposition AIADMK, BJP, and PMK staging a walkout. “The goat doesn’t need a beard and the state a governor,” he said, recalling the famed slogan coined by DMK founder and late Chief Minister Anna (CN Annadurai. “Yet, we continue to honour the office of governor till it is there,” he added.
“What the governor had done is indeed highly regrettable. This house represents the sentiments of 8.5 crore Tamils. The governor should extend cooperation to the decision taken by the government elected with a huge mandate. Placing spokes to hinder the administration, he is speaking politics and spreading slander. It is unacceptable. I have a duty to protect the honour and legacy of the House laid by great personalities,” he said, moving the resolution.