Smarting under Governor RN Ravi’s boycott of the Assembly without delivering the customary address, prepared by the state government, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday charged him with intentionally disrespecting the House and its dignity with a pre-determined mindset which amounted to insulting Tamil and the Tamil people.

The Chief Minister, replying to the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address, reiterated that the Governor’s conduct was ‘childish’ for the reasons for his skipping the address and leaving the House within minutes of his arrival were ‘absurd’.

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“Hon’ble Governor comes to deliver the address. But he leaves without reading it. As stipulated in Article 176 of the Constitution, the Governor is duty bound to read the address, prepared by the state government as it is and that is the norm.

But it has become habitual for him to intentionally trample upon and transgress the tradition of the House,” he said. And, that was the reason as to why I had termed his conduct as childish, the Chief Minister added.

In the Tamil Nadu Assembly, the established convention is to play the ‘Tamil Thai Vazhthu’ (invocation to mother Tamil) in the beginning and the national anthem at the close of the Governor’s address.

However, the Governor was not prepared to accept this clarification and deliberately violated the rule, Stalin explained and made it clear that it was disrespectful of the House.

On the conduct of Ravi having become strange a year after assuming office, Stalin pointed out that in 2022, the Governor had read the address in toto. But his conduct had changed in the subsequent years and the assembly is a witness to strange things.

This, Stalin likened to a famed court-room dialogue in the movie ‘Parasakthi’, scripted by his late father M Karunanidhi, wherein the protagonist says “This court has witnessed many a strange case.”

“The Assembly had not witnessed such scenes in the past and this should never recur,” he asserted.

“He (Governor) is unable to digest the progress the state is making. I may be an ordinary person catapulted to the office of Chief Minister. But this legislature, made up of the feelings of crores of people, has a history and legacy of a century. Driven by a political motive, he has disrespected the dignity of the House and the sentiments of the people besides insulting the Tamil Thai Vazhthu, thereby denigrating the high office that he holds,” he said. Then, the Chief Minister also president of the ruling DMK had this to say, “Politically, we are not bothered about continued neglect or humiliations.

For, the DMK has emerged as a strong social reform movement fighting against untouchability imposed on it and evolving into a dominant political party which has secured the mandate to rule six times and is on course to retain power in 2026.”

The Chief Minister, who took pride in implementing various welfare schemes, accused the Modi government of adopting a step motherly treatment to Tamil Nadu in financial allocation and in releasing funds due to the state even during natural disasters.