Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin attacks Governor for attempting to 'rule from Raj Bhavan'

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Sunday hit out at Governor R N Ravi asking whether he was attempting to "rule the State from Raj Bhavan".

Stalin also slammed the Governor for not approving the bills immediately that was unanimously passed by legislators belonging to various parties in the Assembly.

"Is he trying to rule Tamil Nadu from Raj Bhavan? People have raised doubts and queries on whether he (Governor) is trying to rule the State by sitting at the Raj Bhavan. During the British regime, 50 per cent of the powers were vested upon the Governor while the remaining was vested on the government elected by the people," Stalin said at a public meeting commemorating the two year celebration of DMK regime organised by the party's Kancheepuram West wing here.

While the Prime Minister and his Cabinet ministers hold the powers to rule a country, for a State, the Chief Minister and his ministers have the powers, he said.

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"The Governor is thinking that he has the powers to be involved in the administration of a State," Stalin said.

Referring to the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Online Gambling and Regulation of Online Games Bill, Stalin remarked that the Chief Ministers of various States including Pinarayi Vijayan (Kerala), Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal) and Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi) wrote to him extending their support.

"But the Governor was delaying by not giving his assent for the passage of the bill immediately. This (online gambling) is not a problem between Stalin and R N Ravi. It is not a problem of Tamil Nadu. It is India's problem. He (Governor) insulted democracy by not giving his assent for the passage of the bill immediately," Stalin said.

People have raised doubts on the reason behind his appointment as the Governor to Tamil Nadu and have started to question whether he was sent to spoil the peace prevailing in the State, Stalin alleged.

Referring to the recent incidents in Manipur, the Chief Minister asked the Governor whether such a situation was prevailing in Tamil Nadu.

Maintaining that his government was leaving no stone unturned to ensure peace in the State, the Chief Minister recalled that when the cylinder blast incident occurred in Coimbatore last year, the government arrested those involved within a few hours.

"Even during the violence that occurred in a school in Kallakurichi, the situation was brought under control within a few hours by the Police department," he said.

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On the alleged attack on a woman police constable by a DMK cadre, Stalin said those involved were arrested and were also removed from the party. "We did not try to save the person despite knowing he belonged to the DMK," Stalin said.

On the reported comments by Ravi that books from all the languages across India should be kept in the Kalaignar Centenary Library in Madurai, Stalin asked whether Tamil books would be kept in a library in Gujarat.

"Did he (Ravi) introduce laws instructing books of all States should be kept in the library when he was serving in Nagaland as its Governor?" the DMK chief asked.