Governors of southern states seem to be having a field day, slamming their own governments – if it was Tamilisai Soundararajan of Telangana the other day, it is the turn of Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi now. He has been locking horns with the MK Stalin-led government ever since his appointment in November 2021. He seemed to have quietened down after his sensational walk-out from the Assembly and a resolution against him. But Ravi is back to ‘his form,’ firing on all cylinders.
In an interview to the Times of India on Thursday, May 4, he made some strongly worded comments, charging that the state followed a Dravidian Model ideology that only enforced linguistic apartheid and fostered separatist sentiments. Speaking to Jaya Menon on the walk-out incident, he said that the state government had wanted him to praise the Dravidian governance model and alleged that the speech text he was asked to deliver did not delineate government policies and plans but instead was full of motivated propaganda. “They wanted me to say that this state is a haven of peace in the terms of law and order but I’m oathbound to tell the people of Tamil Nadu the truth,” he claimed in the interview and went on to list a number of recent incidents in the state, including the Kallakurichi Kaniyamoor school violence.
Ravi also sought to dismiss the Dravidian model as nothing more than a political slogan, raised in a desperate bid to revive and promote a dead ideology. It was not even comfortable with the idea of Oru Bharatham, One India, he argued. “...they wanted me to praise and endorse the Dravidian model of governance. First of all, there is no such model of governance. It is only a political slogan, a desperate bid to sustain an expired ideology, an ideology that does not relish the idea of ‘Oru Bharatham, One India’,” he said.
In the Governor’s understanding, the Dravidian model of governance underplayed the national freedom movement and tried to erase the history and memory of hundreds of freedom fighters from the state. Also the Dravidian model glorified those who collaborated with the British.
Referring to this year’s budget announcement to set up a central Kalaignar library with 3.25 lakh books, but only in Tamil and English, the Governor sought to hold it up as yet another instance of “linguistic apartheid” promoted by the government and claimed that other languages are “allowed entry into Tamil Nadu”. “It is an ideology that rabidly enforces linguistic apartheid on the whole of the nation. No other Indian language is allowed entry into Tamil Nadu. So much so that if you read the recent Budget speech, the government is going to set up a central Kalaignar library with 3. 25 lakh books only in Tamil and English, no other language. It is an ideology that has created an ecosystem that fosters separatist sentiment. I don’t think anyone can expect me to endorse that. No, I will not, and I said I will not. After my speech, the speaker read out the Tamil version, I waited,” the Governor said.
On an earlier occasion, he had expressed his preference to call the state Tamilagam instead of Tamil Nadu. While speaking to TOI, he seemed to hark back to that theme yet again. “Unfortunately, in Tamil Nadu, there has been regressive politics, that we are Dravidian, and we have nothing to do with this (Bharat),” insisting that Tamilagam would be a more appropriate nomenclature.
Efforts have been made for over 50 years to reinforce a narrative that implies that Tamil Nadu is not an integral part of India, he said.
Earlier, in the first Assembly session of this year, he had skipped a few portions including one on Dravidian model of governance in his customary address. He passed over eulogistic references to Ambedkar, Dravidian leaders, and the Dravidian model of governance. By convention, the governor reads out the text prepared by the state government, seldom departing from it. Even the President of India adheres to that tradition, meticulously repeating the text prepared by the Union government, even if it happens to be critical of his or her actions. Immediately after Ravi sat down that day, Chief Minister MK Stalin moved a resolution urging Speaker Appavu to declare as valid only the text of the Governor’s address as prepared by the state government, submitted to the Governor and duly tabled in the House.
Sensing that passages he had ignored were being read out, Ravi walked out, even before the national anthem was played. His gesture received severe backlash from the legislators and elsewhere too.
P Wilson, DMK Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate, strongly countered Ravi over his comments on Dravidian ideology. He wondered whether Ravi realised that Tamil Nadu had been voting overwhelmingly in favour of Dravidian ideology time and again, not to mention in 2021 when the Dravidian model of governance was held up before the voters as a cherished ideal.
In a tweet, coming down strongly on the Governor, Wilson said, “Ravi seems to be labouring under a delusion that he knows the people and politics of the state. Ironically what is passe, dead and gone, is only the relevance of the post of Governor.”