In a fresh political uproar involving the absence of a sentence when the singers sang the state anthem at a government event presided by Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi in DD Tamil office on Friday, a verbal clash erupted between the Governor and Chief Minister M K Stalin.
It has been reported that a sentence, "Thekkanamum adhil sirantha Dravida nal thiru naadum", went missing during the Doordarshan Kendra Chennai's Hindi month valedictory function.
The song 'Tamizh Thaai Valthu', authored by Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai, was made the state anthem after M K Stalin became Chief Minister in 2021.
Meanwhile, taking cognisance of the 'inadvertent mistake', the Doordarshan Kendra Chennai apologised and asserted that singers had no intention to disrespect Tamil or Tamizh Thaai Valthu, the state song.
"We apologise for the inadvertent mistake. There was no intention from the singers to disrespect Tamil or Tamizh Thaai Valthu. In this regard, we apologise for the inconvenience caused to the Hon'ble Governor of Tamil Nadu," a statement from Doordarshan Tamil, said.
What did CM stalin say?
Reacting to the incident, CM Stalin slammed the Governor for insulting the unity of the country, Tamil Nadu and its people and demanded that he be recalled by the Centre.
While wondering if Ravi was a governor or an 'Aryan', Stalin said a person who doesn't abide by the law and acts as per his wishes is not fit to hold that office.
"Will the Governor, suffering from the Dravidian allergy, ask the people to sing the national anthem leaving out Dravida?" the chief minister asked while urging the Centre to immediately recall Ravi for deliberately insulting Tamil Nadu.
The Governor's reaction
In a stern response to Stalin's racist remark against him and for levelling a "false allegation of showing disrespect to Tamizh Thaai Valthu", the Governor said, the allegation against him was "unfortunately cheap and lowers the dignity of the high constitutional office of the chief minister."
Governor Ravi said in a post on 'X' that the CM knows well that he recites full 'Tamizh Thaai Valthu' at every function with reverence, pride and precision. The CM was aware that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Central government 'proudly created' several institutions for spread of Tamil language and heritage within India including Tamil Nadu and several countries of the world. PM Modi took Tamil even to the United Nations, the Governor said.
"As a proud Indian I myself have taken numerous substantive initiatives to spread Tamil, the oldest and richest living language, in other states of the country, the latest being to set up , with cooperation of the Assam govt, a Tamil diploma course in Gauhati University for spread of Tamil in the North East", he further added.
