TN CM Stalin takes a jibe at Governor Ravi for 'rant' against Tamil Nadu's name
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin took a jibe at Governor RN Ravi on stage on Saturday, January 14, referring to the latter as 'one guy who is ranting against calling the state Tamil Nadu'. Stalin was speaking at the inauguration of a 'Dravidian Model Workshop' for Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) youth wing members, and recounted several stories about DMK stalwarts in the speech. At one point, he recalled how party founder Annadurai attended Tamil Nadu's naming ceremony where the state got its preferred name, despite being unwell. According to Stalin, Annadurai said, "My family members, senior party leaders, and doctors advised me to not attend this event. But what is the point of being alive if I cannot attend the event where Tamil Nadu is getting the name Tamil Nadu."
Stalin followed this up with a clear jibe at Governor RN Ravi, although he did not name him. The Governor, who has been at loggerheads with the elected government in the state for a long time now, recently kicked up another controversy when he said Tamil Nadu should be renamed 'Tamizhagam'. He said this while deriding Tamil Nadu for allegedly opposing national unity. "Unfortunately in Tamil Nadu there has been regressive politics that we are Dravidians, and by virtue of the Constitution, we have been brought together. The entire effort has been created in half a century to reinforce this narrative that we are not part of the nation, an integral part of the nation. And even a different kind of narrative has been created. Everything applicable for the whole of the country, Tamil Nadu will say no," Ravi said on January 4.
Stalin said following his anecdote about Annadurai, "And now one guy is ranting against calling the state Tamil Nadu," to applause from the audience. "Enough advertisement for him," Stalin said, and added that he was recounting all this because it's the history that the youth wing must know.
How Tamil Nadu got its name
January 14 is very significant in Tamil Nadu's political history as the Madras State was officially renamed Tamil Nadu State by then Chief Minister CN Annadurai on this day in 1969. It was Annadurai who initiated the steps to rename the state when he became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in 1967. In the Assembly on July 18, 1967, a resolution was unanimously passed, demanding that the state name mentioned in the Constitution be changed. Parties including Congress welcomed the resolution.
The renaming of the state needed a Constitutional amendment. The lower house and upper house of Parliament approved the Bill in November and December 1968 respectively. The state government later issued a gazette notification to bring the name change into effect on January 14, 1969.
Before this, on various occasions, political leaders and reformers including EV Ramasamy, famously known as Periyar, demanded the renaming of the Madras state. Periyar used the term Tamizhagam as early as 1938 and subsequently used both Tamizhgam and Tamil Nadu on different occasions. In 1953, Ma Po Sivagnanam, a Tamil scholar, raised the demand to change the name of the state in the Madras Legislative Council. Later in 1956, a group of parties including CPI and the Praja Socialist party called for a one-day bandh to highlight the demand.
During the same period, social reformer and politician P Jeevanandham said the Tamil-speaking land should be called Tamil Nadu by referring to famous poems like Vazhiya Bharatha Mani Thirunadu and Senthamizh Nadenum Pothinile by Bharathiyar. The demand for the name change intensified when ‘Thiyagi’ Sankaralinganar, a Congress party worker, died on October 13, 1956, after he was on a 75 days indefinite fast demanding that the state be renamed.
DMK has demanded the name change since the day they entered the Assembly. On May 7, 1957, DMK's resolution on the name change was defeated as only 42 legislators supported the move. On January 30, 1961, Socialist Party leader Chinna Durai brought a resolution regarding the name change and requested support from the Congress party which led to then CM Kamarajar postponing the discussion on it for a month. To show disappointment, DMK boycotted the Assembly for three days. But the resolution failed after it was tabled on the floor a month later, without support from the ruling Congress, in February 1961. Then, Finance Minister C Subramaniam offered a compromise that the state government can use the term Tamil Nadu in its communication in Tamil. He also said that the Madras state term can be used in communications in English.
Watch:Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi walked out of Assembly | Karti Chidambaram interview
The argument in Parliament
In 1961, West Bengal MP Bhupesh Gupta, a Communist leader, initiated a Bill in Parliament to change the name of Madras State to Tamil Nadu. It was supposed to be moved by Communist leader P Ramamurti from Tamil Nadu, but due to his absence, Gupta moved the Bill and asked the government why the Congress is refusing to rename the state despite the state party unit being named Tamil Nadu Congress Committee.
As a Rajya Sabha member, Annadurai supported the Bill and answered a question from a member on what was to be gained from renaming the state: "What do I gain? What has the country gained by renaming Parliament as Lok Sabha, the Council of States as Rajya Sabha, President as Rashtrapati? Therefore I say, what do you lose?" He reiterated that the name of the state and its capital should be different and Madras — the capital city — cannot become the name of the state. However, without majority support, the Bill was defeated.
Final move
On July 23, 1963, DMK member Rama Arangannal brought the resolution once again to the state Assembly. State Minister R Venkatraman said Tamil Nadu as a name will not be known worldwide, but Madras is recognised globally. Moreover, changing the name of the state will mean agreements between the states and other countries will need to be corrected. DMK responded to the point by asking if Gold Coast didn't face any such issues when it was renamed Ghana, what kind of repercussions could a state face when its name changed. But, again, the Bill failed. Things changed when DMK became the powerful ruling party after winning the 1967 Assembly elections.
The Governor vs government
The Tamil Nadu government led by the DMK, and Governor Ravi have been locked in arguments for several months now. Following his Tamil Nadu vs Tamizhagam remark, RN Ravi in the first session of the state Assembly this year, deliberately skipped three portions of his customary address that was prepared by the state government. Ravi walked out of the house as CM Stalin introduced a resolution against him over his skipped speech. Soon after the Governor’s address ended, Chief Minister MK Stalin moved a resolution urging the Speaker to declare as valid only the text prepared for the Governor’s address, which had already been tabled in the House. The Chief Minister said that he was saddened by the Governor’s decision to omit these portions.
The row did not stop there. A day after Ravi walked out of the house, on January 10, the Pongal invitation from Raj Bhavan called the state Tamizhgam instead of Tamil Nadu. The invitation mentioned the dates according to the Roman calendar, instead of referring to the Tamil year as ‘Thiruvalluvar Aandu’ and the month as ‘Thai’. After severe criticism over the invitation, on January 12, S Selvaraj, the Joint Director of Public Relations in Raj Bhavan was relieved with immediate effect.