CHENNAI: Minutes after walking out of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly without delivering the customary Governor’s Address, Lok Bhavan on Tuesday issued a detailed clarification, asserting that Governor R N Ravi was denied the opportunity to speak and that the government-drafted address failed to reflect several pressing concerns of the people.
The clarification from Lok Bhavan comes amid escalating tensions between the Governor and the State government, with Tuesday’s developments adding a sharp constitutional edge to the political discourse in the Assembly.
In a statement released soon after the incident, Lok Bhavan said the Governor declined to read the address after his microphone was ‘repeatedly switched off’ and he was not allowed to place his views before the House. The statement maintained that the Governor, as the constitutional head of the State, was constrained to withdraw in the face of what it termed an unprecedented denial of his right to speak.
Lok Bhavan said the address contained numerous unsubstantiated and misleading claims and ignored several issues of grave public concern. It specifically disputed the government’s assertion that Tamil Nadu had attracted investments exceeding Rs 12 lakh crore, stating that many memoranda of understanding remained only on paper and that actual investments were hardly a fraction of the claimed figure. It further pointed to investment data indicating that the State’s position among top recipients of foreign direct investment had slipped in recent years.
Lok Bhavan said the address contained numerous unsubstantiated and misleading claims and ignored several issues of grave public concern. It specifically disputed the government’s assertion that Tamil Nadu had attracted investments exceeding Rs 12 lakh crore, stating that many memoranda of understanding remained only on paper and that actual investments were hardly a fraction of the claimed figure. It further pointed to investment data indicating that the State’s position among top recipients of foreign direct investment had slipped in recent years.
The statement said women’s safety was totally ignored despite a sharp rise in POCSO cases and incidents of sexual violence. It also flagged the growing prevalence of narcotics and drug abuse among youth, including school students, noting that more than 2,000 people had died by suicide in a year due to substance abuse.
Lok Bhavan further listed rising atrocities against Dalits, a high number of suicides in the State, prolonged vacancies and mismanagement in educational institutions, and the non-conduct of village panchayat elections for years, which it said had denied people their constitutional right to grassroots democracy.
Concerns were also raised over prolonged government control of thousands of temples without trustee boards, stress in the MSME sector, discontent among lower-rung employees, and what the statement described as repeated disregard of constitutional duties, including respect for the National Anthem.