In his most recent clash with the M K Stalin government, Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi made the decision to leave the Assembly after declining to read the customary address at the start of the annual session. This is not the first time Governor Ravi has chosen to skip parts of the official speech prepared by the ruling DMK government.
Governor Ravi explained that his repeated requests and advice to show proper respect to the national anthem by playing it at the beginning and end of his address have been disregarded. He stated that there are numerous passages in the address with which he strongly disagrees on both factual and moral grounds. He believes that lending his voice to these passages would be a violation of the constitution. With respect to the House, he concluded his address and wished for a productive and meaningful discussion for the benefit of the people. He ended by saying, “Vaazhga Tamil Nadu, Vaazhaga Bharatam, Jai Hind, Jai Bharat, Nandri.”
Following this, Assembly Speaker M Appavu read out the prepared Tamil version of the address, highlighting the economic growth and societal progress achieved by the Stalin-led government despite facing multiple disasters over the years. While addressing the Assembly in the presence of Governor Ravi, Appavu acknowledged that the Governor had expressed his thoughts. He also mentioned that the Centre has not released flood relief funds to the state and proposed that the Governor recommend to the Union Government to release Rs 50,000 crore from the PM Cares Fund for flood relief.
However, before the national anthem could be sung, Governor Ravi left the Tamil Nadu Assembly.