The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday heaped praise on Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin for taking a strong stand against Governor R N Ravi, after the latter dropped the names of several Tamil leaders and late B R Ambedkar from the speech prepared for him by the TN government to deliver to the Assembly ahead of a new session and walked out of the House.
Taking serious exception to the manner in which the Governor conducted himself in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, Maharashtra NCP president Jayant Patil said that India was a federal system of democracy where the states enjoyed the same status as the Centre.
“However, attempts are being made to crush the Constitutional rights of the state by the Governors appointed by the Centre all over India. We fully support the strong stand taken by chief minister Stalin,” Patil said.
Maintaining that a Governor’s address was like a ‘policy’ document of the respective state government, the State NCP president said: “The Governor must read out the speech approved by the state Cabinet. This practice has been going on since the Constitution came into existence. We appreciate the strong stand taken by CM Stalin”.
During the unprecedented controversy witnessed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Monday, the Governor dropped the names and references to several Tamil leaders and late B R Ambedkar from the speech prepared for him by the local state government to deliver at the beginning of a new session of the Assembly and staged an unprecedented walk out from the House, before the national anthem was played.
During the Governor’s speech that lasted for 50 minutes, members of the ruling DMK and its allies like Congress, VCK, MDMK and CPI-M had shouted vociferous slogans against Ravi,.
After the Governor staged a walkout, the Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted a resolution moved by Stalin, approving the original speech prepared in Tamil. In its resolution, the Tamil Nadu Assembly noted that the Governor’s action was “wrong”, “not acceptable” and “against the Dravidian model principles of governance”.
Saluting Stalin for the stand taken by him after the Governor’s action, State’s former minister Jitendra Awhad tweeted: “I salute chief minister of #TamilNadu #stalin when the governor changed the speech approved by the #cabinet and also dropped the name of #Periyar and #DrAmbedkar to which #CM #Stalin objected”.
Later talking to media persons, Awhad elaborated: “After the protests, the TN Governor walked out of the House, but it was heartening to see that CM Stalin did not even once attempt to call him back… He showed that any slight to icons like Thanthai Periyar or Dr. Ambedkar will not be tolerated… I salute CM Stalin for this”.
NCP’s national spokesperson Clyde Crasto said that the post of Governor held a Constitutional post, he is the guardian of the state and it was his duty to remain neutral.