Like pinching the child and rocking the cradle, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, who advised his party men, including MLAs, MPs not to mount verbal attacks on the Governor, now he and his party’s spokesperson Shivaji Krishnamurthy and former MP RS Bharathi, have started the name calling, speaking in singular and issues threats to RN Ravi.
The DMK has started a no-holds-barred orchestrated attack on Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi, with whom it has had no bonhomie from the day he took charge DMK and allies have been making an unfounded accusation against the Governor as he is not dancing to its tunes. After the unprecedented happenings and ruckus at the State Assembly on January 9, the Governor was forced to walk out of the House after his customary address.
The Speaker and the CM remained silent when members of its allies. Its ally VCK protested in front of the Raj Bhavan. Some of its allies joined the bandwagon in condemning the Governor as if he were committed a serious crime DMK cadres pasted posters on Chennai city walls, “Get out Ravi”, and launched a social media campaign, trending for his ouster DMK delegation met the President to present a petition against the Governor describing how he behaved in the Assembly. Earlier it urged the President to remove him from the post.
To test the water, Stalin allowed his party spokesperson Shivaji Krishnamurthy, famous for uncivilised, unparliamentary utterances and invectives against Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shan, TN BJP chief Annamalai, now to attack the Governor while addressing a meeting to celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of former MLA and general secretary of DMK Anbazhagan, Shivaji used derogatory terms that refer to a mother derogatorily to call Tamil Nadu leaders like TN BJP President Annamalai, Leader of Opposition party Edappadi Palaniswamy, Governor RN Ravi, and BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan.
He suggested killing TN Governor RN Ravi, saying, “CM is asking us not to scold the Governor. Had he read the speech properly, I would have placed flowers on his feet and thanked him with folded hands. But don’t I have the right to slap him with a slipper if he denies saying Ambedkar’s name. If you deny saying his name, you go to Kashmir. We’ll send a terrorist to shoot and kill you.”.
Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan has preferred a complaint to the Chennai police commissioner in person and email seeking action against the DMK orator. Deputy Secretary to Governor S Prasanna Ramasamy said in a complaint attaching the video clip to police, said Krishnamurthy has, in the video footage, used ‘foul, abusive, defamatory and intimidatory language’ against Governor Ravi. He said Sivaji Krishnamurthy, in the video using the most abusive, defamatory and derogatory language and intimidation against Governor Ravi, has been uploaded on various social media platforms, which is ‘going viral’ He wanted action against him as the abusive and intimidatory speech attracts Section 124 of the IPC (assaulting President, Governor, etc., with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power) besides other relevant provisions of law, TN BJP is learnt to have preferred a complaint against Shivaji Krishnamoorthy.
Former Rajya Sabha member and DMK’s Organising secretary, RS Bharati, known for speaking badly of others in choicest invectives, said that Ravi would not have gone home had the CM even gestured with his eyes to the MLAs.
He said at a party meeting on January 10, “Your ( Governor) job was to serve what was ordered and not to place something else on one’s plate and ask them to have it… I am not boasting, had Jayalalithaa (former AIADMK chief minister) been alive, he (the Governor) would not have gone without being beaten up”.
Bharathi alleged that the Governor ran away from the Assembly on January 9 and said, “if people like (temple affairs minister) Sekar Babu had known about his walking out, the situation would have been different. We have several Sekar Babus with us. Even if our leader (Stalin) had made a slight gesture with his eyes, would the Governor have gone home?”.
DMK members knew what to do in such a scenario and would have hurled whatever they could catch hold of. “Governor had skipped the name of DMK founder and former Chief Minister CN Annadurai in his speech because the late Anna had said that “Aatuku dhadi etharku, natuku governor etharku (a goat does not require a beard and a state does not require a governor)”. He said, “the Governor’s job is akin to that of somebody tasked with removing banana leaves after a feast, and not to count it (he reportedly compared Ravi to a migrant panipuri seller from Bihar). You (Governor) think that the DMK is shamed by your actions in the Assembly. I just want to say that till now, Thalapathy Stalin had been the leader of just Tamil Nadu, but through your actions, you have proved that he has the quality to lead the nation and send (Prime Minister) Modi home,”.
Bharati said in last year “Naai (dogs) and Pei (evil spirits) have started talking now If H.Raja, (beep), a Brahmin, (beep), dares to come on television and talk… if I weren’t given the responsibility of an office bearer in the party I would most certainly have become a terrorist… I’m telling frankly people of other states are stupid….those in the Northern states don’t have any sense These Iyers( temple priests) are living on our money only The Supreme Court has become a camp of RSS”.
While the controversy was still raging, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin sparked a new one by referring to Governor RN Ravi in the singular while speaking at the launch of DMK Youth Wing App and Dravida Model training camp 2.0 at the Anna Arivalayam in Chennai, CM Stalin said, “When the late Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Anna Durai was sick, many including his family members, doctors, and senior party leader told him to not attend the public meeting after naming erstwhile Madras state as Tamil Nadu. But Anna questioned what was the point of his life if he couldn’t attend the meeting that named Madras state as Tamil Nadu.”
Later referring to Governor RN Ravi indirectly, amid huge applause from the DMK crowd, that there is a person (‘oruthan’ – singular and without respect in Tamil) lamenting here that we should not use the word Tamil Nadu. Chief Minister said, “I don’t want to give that person any more publicity I am saying this because we should be aware of our history.”
CM Stalin’s derogatory reference to Governor Ravi has led many to question if DMK leader Shivaji Krishnamurthy, RS Bharati’s abusive remarks at the behest of Stalin. It is unbecoming of a CM to stoop level to attack a person who is a constitutional head of the State. This type of war of words will make the situation worse. The Central Government is watching keenly which wants to give him a long rope to allow him to make more mistakes. It will never invoke article 356, which the DMK wants to gain sympathy from the public as it has miserably failed on all fronts and is mounting a debt trap.
Many complaints against Thol Thirumavlavan, DMK leaders, and Dravidia Kazhagam leaders have been made to the police, but for reasons best known to them, they are gathering dust.
