In a move which took Tamil Nadu politics by surprise, Governor Banwarilal Purohit turned the tables on MK Stalin, the DMK working president, who has been clamouring with the Centre demanding the dismissal of the former.
“He has his own agenda; I have no objections,” Governor Purohit told the reporter of a pro-CPI(M) newspaper in an exclusive interview. This is the first time in Tamil Nadu’s political history, the executive head of the State has come out in the open and lambasted his critics.
Stalin has been calling for the dismissal of Governor Purohit alleging that he was interfering in the State administration and appointing vice-chancellors to the Universities in the State on his own and bringing in non-Tamils as Vice Chancellors.
“Governor is the Executive Head of the State. I thought I should know about Tamil Nadu, its culture, geography, rivers, industries, farmers and living conditions. I have to know the potential and scope as the executive head .
It is not possible without personally visiting the places. In the meetings, there are 25 to 30 officials involving key departments. I get first hand information from them. I don’t scold them, I don’t find mistakes, I don’t take action. Then how can you say I interfere,” the Governor asked the reporter.
Purohit also made it clear that Stalin could easily verify with officials like district collectors or superintendents of police or the 300 officers who had attended his meetings.
“But he is not willing,” said Purohit. This is being seen as a retort to the claim made by Stalin that the governor told him that the AIADMK government’s performance was pathetic.
After a recent meeting with the Governor at Raj Bhavan, Stalin told reporters that former had a poor opinion of the AIADMK-led government. “The governor was conducting review meetings with officials because he has no faith in the government led by Edappadi Palaniswamy. There is no need for him to conduct such meetings if he had faith in the government. The governor himself invited me for a meeting and he told me about th pathetic functioning of the AIADMK government,” Stalin had said early this month.
The DMK and its allies are on a spree of black flag demonstration against the Governor whenever he comes out of Raj Bhavan and visits the districts. Though the Governor had issued press releases through Raj Bhavan explaining the reasons behind his visit to the districts, the Tamil media chose not to carry the same in its entirety and alleged that the Governor was making way for the Centre rule in Tamil Nadu amidst chaos in the ruling dispensation in the State.
Stalin, though a vehement critic of the Governor because of the fact that he was appointed by the BJP-led government at the Centre, had called on latter to submit memorandum demanding the dismissal of the AIADMK government and to seek the help of the Governor to get an appointment with the Prime Minister.