Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has posed a series of questions to Governor RN Ravi regarding a missing line from Tamil Nadu's state anthem during its rendition in an event, indicating the verbal fight between the two is far from over. He also criticised the Governor for "vilifying the Dravidian race" and trying to "impose Hindi everywhere".
The latest flashpoint was triggered after a line with the word 'Dravida' was skipped by singers during the event presided over by the Tamil Nadu Governor on Friday.
"Why didn't you correct the omission right away?" Mr Stalin posted on X, accusing Mr Ravi of skipping mentioning the "Dravidian model in the past".
"When this is your history, how will Tamils believe this omission was inadvertent?" he posted.
The sentence "Thekkanamum adhil sirantha Dravida nal thiru naadum" was missing when the singers sang the anthem during the Doordarshan Kendra Chennai's Hindi month valedictory function. Doordarshan Tamil apologised for the "inadvertent mistake", and said singers had no intention to disrespect Tamil or Tamizh Thaai Valthu, the state song.
MK Stalin took strong exception to the omission and accused the governor of insulting the unity of the country and the people of different races living in the land, under the guise of observing Hindi month. He said that a person who doesn't abide by the law and acts as per his wishes was not fit to hold that office and wondered if Mr Ravi was a governor or an "Aryan".
Mr Ravi, on his part, accused the Chief Minister of making a racist remark against him. He said the allegation against him was "unfortunately cheap and lowers the dignity of the high constitutional office of the Chief Minister." His response, however, was silent on the skipped line by the singers.
"You have said 'It is unfortunately cheap for a Chief Minister to make racist comments against a Governor with false allegations'. Governor, Tamil is our race! It is our lifeblood! Tamils are the ones who gave their lives to save the Tamil language. It is the soil that laid the foundations of the First Constitutional Amendment and bears the history of the Indian anti-imposition struggle. If you call our love for Tamil racist, it's an honour for us," MK Stalin hit back.
He also accused the Centre and the governor appointed by it of trying to impose "Hindi with the policy of 'Hindi everywhere - Hindi in anything' by Prime Minister Modi's schemes and slogans".
"What kind of political civilization is it to forget the constitutional norms and talk about politics every day, and to turn the Governor's House into a political office - and to vilify the Dravidian race? What kind of culture?" he wrote.
Mr Ravi had said that he recites full Tamizh Thaai Vaazhthu at every function and he does so with "reverence, pride and precision". Under the leadership of Hon'ble Prime Minister Thiru Narendra Modi, the Central government has proudly created several institutions for spread of Tamil language and heritage within India including Tamil Nadu and several countries of the world. PM Modi took Tamil even to the United Nations," he said on X.
The Chief Minister had earlier said the Governor should step down as he had failed to speak for Tamil pride.
"If you intend to continue as governor, I request you to free yourself from divisive forces and discharge your duties according to constitutional norms," MK Stalin said.
The face-off began after MK Stalin wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasising that the Indian Constitution does not grant national language status to any language, and Hindi and English are only for official purposes. He suggested avoiding the Hindi language month celebration in non-Hindi-speaking states.
He also condemned the celebration of Hindi Month valedictory function along with the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Chennai Doordarshan. In response, Governor RN Ravi said that Hindi should not be viewed as an imposition but as a language to be celebrated alongside other languages.
The Doordarshan event marked the beginning of the golden jubilee celebrations of Doordarshan Chennai, which commenced operations in 1975.
Reacting to the raging controversy, Doordarshan Kendra, Chennai, said the line was "inadvertently missed due to a distraction". "We apologise for the inadvertent mistake. There was no intention from the singers to disrespect Tamil or Tamizh Thaai Valthu. In this regard, we apologise for the inconvenience caused to the Hon'ble Governor of Tamil Nadu," a statement from Doordarshan Tamil, said.
The Tamizh Thaai Valthu was made the state anthem after MK Stalin became Chief Minister in 2021. The song was authored by Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai.
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