Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi should not unilaterally change the name of the state

There is no state in India which is not facing some or other kind of problems. The powers that be usually struggle to solve the problems of people; and yet they are determined to generate new, needless controversies. So, we have Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi who has not only suggested ‘Tamizhagam’ as the new name of Tamil Nadu, calling it “a more appropriate name” but has also started using it in official communications. Needless to say, such impetuosity has angered the MLA of Tamil Nadu, a state in which regional feelings are very strong and which witnessed anti-Hindi and anti-north India agitations not very long ago. It is gross misconduct on the part of the Governor to change the name of the state where he is expected to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” His decision was not just unilateral but also against the express wishes of the democratically elected Government. A press communiqué released by the Governor’s House said, “There has been regressive politics with the wrong habit of refusing everything that benefits all sections of people including academicians blindly for their own interests, claiming that the state is not integrally part of India.” That may be correct, but is it the job of the Governor to reform the politics in the state? And even if a Governor wants to do something that may be deemed as political, should he or she do that without taking the Government in the state into confidence?

That Ravi happens to be a former Indian Police Officer, and not some provincial pracharak whose fortunes turned after the rise of the Sangh Parivar, makes his misconduct even more conspicuous and egregious. Evidently, he is walking in the footsteps of Jagdeep Dhankhar who endeared himself to the top leadership with his continuous run-ins with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee; he was rewarded by an elevation; now he is the Vice-President of India. Dhankhar seems to have become an ‘inspirational’ figure. Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan began his wars with the state Government. Ravi too seems to have followed suit. He is knowledgeable and perspicacious enough to realise that the best way to chafe and fret the DMK Government in the southern state is to gnaw at its Dravidian ideology and Tamil narrative. The icing on the cake would be approval from the RSS bosses. So, he told a news agency: “Here in Tamil Nadu, a different kind of narrative has been created. Everything applicable for the whole of the country, Tamil Nadu will say no. It has become a habit. So many theses have been written — all false and poor fiction. This must be broken. Truth must prevail.” This is perfectly in tune with the doctrines that RSS ideologues have been promoting. The DMK’s reaction is on expected lines. Senior leader TR Baalu said, “He [Ravi] makes statements that are factually incorrect and potentially dangerous.” The consequences are also not unexpected: a Constitutional logjam in the state.