Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi found himself in the middle of controversy once again on Tuesday, January 10, when he raised objection to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) use of the term ondriya arasu to refer to the union government. The Governor said that he was fine with the use of the term union government but the Tamil translation ondriya arasu was not acceptable.
RN Ravi was speaking to a group of civil service aspirants who have cleared their Civil Services (Main) Exam when the subject of ondriyam (union) came up. RN Ravi was responding to a question from the audience on how to settle the debate between the usage of the terms “union government” versus “central government”. According to The Hindu, the Governor said that ondiryam referred to a sub-divisional level in the hierarchy and using that term to refer to the union government was with the intention to belittle or be disrespectful to the union government. The Governor further said that there would have been no objection to the usage of ondriyam to refer to the union government if there was no “lower level social structure” that was referred to by the same term.
In June 2021, the DMK government decided to stop using the word Mathiya Arasu (Centre) and started referring to the Union government as Ondriya Arasu. At the time, constitutional expert Subash Kashyap told TNM that calling the Union government ‘Centre’ makes the government in Delhi being viewed as a central and the only authority in India, which leads to the states not having an equal say.
“From the point of the usage of the words, 'centre' indicates a point in the middle of a circle, whereas 'Union' is the whole circle. In India, the relationship between the so-called 'Centre' and States, as per the Constitution, is actually a relationship between the whole and its parts. The relation between the whole and its parts is definitely different from the relation between a centre and its periphery,” Subash Kashyap said.
“The word ‘Centre’ is not used in the Constitution; the makers of the Constitution specifically discarded it and instead used the word ‘Union’. 'Centre' is a hangover from the colonial period because the Babus (bureaucrats) in the North and South Block (of the Secretariat Building in New Delhi), who are used to using the word ‘Central Laws,’ ‘Central legislature,’ etc, and so everyone else, including the media, started using the word,” he had explained.
The Governor’s comment came a day after he skipped portions of his inaugural address in the Tamil Nadu assembly which was condemned by the DMK government which went on to move a resolution. This angered the Governor and he walked out of the Assembly before the session came to an end with the customary playing of the national anthem.
The Governor found himself embroiled in another controversy on Tuesday when the pongal celebrations invitation that was sent from Raj Bhavan used ‘Tamilagam’ instead of Tamil Nadu. The invitation read, “Tamilaga Aalunar (Governor of Tamilagam) RN Ravi and Lakshmi Ravi cordially invite you to participate in the Pongal festival that is scheduled on Thursday, January 12 at the Governor's Residence (Raj Bhavan), Chennai." The controversial invitation comes on the heels of a row kicked up by the Governor recently, when he suggested that Tamil Nadu be renamed to ‘Tamilagam’.