Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Monday, February 12, 2024 unanimously passed a resolution to take on record only the speech prepared by the State government for Governor R.N. Ravi for his inaugural customary address for 2024 and not his shortened speech and the remarks citing reasons for his refusal to read the entire speech.
Leader of the House Duraimurugan proposed the resolution by requesting to relax Rule 17 of the Assembly, which dealt with observance of order by members of the House during Governor’s address under article 175 or 176 of the Constitution, after Speaker M. Appavu finished reading the Tamil version of the prepared speech.
Mr. Ravi, who was being updated about the proceedings in Tamil by his Secretary R. Kirlosh Kumar, left the House before Mr. Duraimurugan read out the resolution. The resolution said the speech prepared for this inaugural address and presented to the members in Tamil and English be taken on Assembly’s records.
The Speaker called for a voice vote on the resolution. Observing that there were no “Noes,” he said the resolution was passed unanimously.
Soon after finishing the Tamil version of the speech and prior to calling Mr. Duraimurugan to speak, Mr. Appavu made certain remarks in the presence of Governor while stating that he did not want to mention it as a fault that the Governor did not read the entire speech.
Referring to Mr. Ravi’s observations on national anthem, he said while everyone had lots of opinions on many things, it was not a convention to speak about all that. He said the State government, the Chief Minister, the Ministers and the MLAs have treated the Governor with respect despite differences in opinions and principles.
Stating that the Governor had expressed what was in his heart, he kindly requested the Governor to listen to “what is in our hearts”. Highlighting that Tamil Nadu faced massive floods and the Union government “had not released a single paisa,” he appealed for the release of funds from “the lakhs of crores” kept in PM CARES Fund, the accounts of which which, he alleged, cannot be questioned by the public.
Later, after the resolution was passed, the Speaker said the issue on national anthem was resolved last year after the Governor wrote a letter to him on the same. Stressing that the Assembly has always respected and followed the conventions, he said the convention was to play Tamil Thai Vaazhthu prior to the Governor’s address and play the national anthem when the session concluded after the address.
