A new issue of contention has come up between Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi and the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government yet again, with the Governor posting an image of Tamil scholar Thiruvalluvar clad in saffron clothing. The row broke out on the occasion of the poet-scholar’s birthday. Chief Minister MK Stalin reacted sharply to this, slamming the Governor’s act of ‘saffronising’ the poet. The issue has been ongoing for a while now, with the same saffron clad Thiruvalluvar’s illustration being spotted in a class 8 CBSE textbook. BJP Tamil Nadu’s official Twitter handle also posted an image of Thiruvalluvar in saffron robes and holy ash smeared on his forehead.

On January 16, Tuesday, Governor Ravi posted calling the poet a “great saint of the Bharatiya Sanatan tradition”, and a video on X (formerly Twitter) of himself and his wife Laxmi Ravi paying tributes to an image of Thiruvalluvar clad in saffron robes. In the image, Thiruvalluvar is seen wearing rudraksha beads on his neck and arms, and holy ash and vermilion smeared on his forehead and arms.

While the CM did not point directly to this, he said that no one can “taint Valluvar” in the state. “Birthday wishes to the great Valluvar, who was born in Tamil Nadu and preached aram in Tamil for the whole world! It was Valluvar who said that social justice was for all living beings, and that only effort brings success and the ideology of aram as a virtue. No one can taint Valluvar in Tamil Nadu, which praises him as Kuraloviyan and has a 133 foot statue and a monument in the capital. Our path is that of Kural’s morality! Our morals are that of Kural!,” he said.