Tamil Nadu: Exactly Which Parts Of His Speech Did Governor Ravi Skip And Why

While it is still being debated as to whether it was correct on the part of Governor RN Ravi to walk out of the Tamil Nadu Assembly after Chief Minister MK Stalin moved a resolution urging the Speaker to take on record only the prepared text of the Governor’s speech, a closer look at some of the topics that were skipped by the Governor would help in understanding the situation better.

According to critics of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the Governor might have chosen to skip those parts because he did not agree with them and some of them looked like party propaganda.

The DMK's contention has been that the Governor usually reads out the text prepared by the government as it is and it does not matter whether he or she agrees with the text.

Following are some pictures of the text prepared by the government and the highlighted parts are some of the points allegedly skipped by the Governor according to actor and activist Kasthuri Shankar. These pictures were shared by her on Twitter.

An examination of the record of the DMK government on the highlighted points is as follows:

'Government accords highest priority to law and order and is taking all necessary measures to ensure that the state continues to be a haven of peace and tranquillity.'

This point was strongly countered by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Annamalai in a Twitter thread posted after the incident and reported by Swarajya yesterday (9 January).

He had said that Tamil Nadu being a haven of peace and tranquillity was far from the reality as there were many challenges to law and order last year. He recounted the mishandling of the Coimbatore blast and the throwing of petrol bombs at the houses of BJP and Hindu Munnani functionaries after the ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI) last year.

After Sri Lankan drug lord Kanjipani Imran sneaked into the state from Sri Lanka, despite a specific input from central agencies, Annamalai had said that the government was committing one intelligence failure after another.

The Coimbatore blast was the first, followed by the Mangalore blast accused Mohammed Shariq staying in Tamil Nadu and now the entry of Imran.

'Chief Minister Is Determined To Crack Down On The Distribution And Consumption Of Narcotics With An Iron Hand.'

Of late opposition leaders Edappadi Palaniswami as well as K Annamalai have been saying that drug addiction has increased in the state and a BJP worker in Chengalpattu was severely thrashed for exposing the sale of ganja.

In November 2022, Sarbraz Nawaz, a DMK councillor and his brother were caught near Rameswaram trying to smuggle Rs 360 crore worth cocaine to Sri Lanka through a fishing boat.

Recently, the NIA arrested nine people from Tiruchirapalli in connection with the March 2021 haul of drugs and arms near Vizhinjam. They were allegedly hand in glove with Pakistani drug-runner Haji Salim and intended to use the proceeds of crime to revive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a terrorist organisation.

'As Tamil Nadu is a haven of peace it is receiving a lot of foreign investments.'

Data is not on the government's side, as a comparable economy like Karnataka received five times more than that of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra received four times more in the calendar year 2021.

While Tamil Nadu received $3,023 million, Maharashtra received $12,226 million and Karnataka received $18,554 million.

'Government Is Taking All Necessary Measures To Protect Temple Lands And Property Worth Rs 3,657 crore has been recovered.'

The government may have recovered the said amount of temple property but there is still a lot of work to do.

People are overwhelmingly unhappy with the functioning of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HRCE) department according to a Twitter poll.

81.9 per cent of respondents had voted that the department was 'bad for temples.'

In December 2022, a Madras High Court judge was harassed by temple staff as he pointed out that he was wrongly issued only two tickets of Rs 50, when he had paid for three. The third ticket given to him was of Rs 5.

Recently, the department could not protect two historic temples in Chennai from demolition for the Chennai metro rail because the temples were shown to be on encroached land. It took a few Public Interest Litigations (PILs), by temple activists to save the temples.

'Government Is Following Dravidian Model Of Governance Following The Ideals of Periyar, Annadurai and Karunanidhi.'

The Governor skipping this part was quite predictable, as few days back at an event he had remarked that the state had seen ‘regressive politics’, in the last 50 years. This was seen as a reference to the Dravidian model.

The ruling DMK has been at loggerheads with the Governor over a number of issues like his remarks on Thirukkural and Sanatana Dharma. It also says that the Governor is responsible for the deaths caused by online rummy, because he has not signed a bill banning such online games.

Last November, it had submitted a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu asking her to remove Ravi from the post of Governor, due to his 'anti-constitutional' remarks.

Also Read: Article 356 Trending In Tamil Nadu After Governor RN Ravi's Walkout From Assembly