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A row between Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi and Chief Minister M K Stalin escalated on Sunday after Ravi accused the latter of “arrogance,” asserting that respect for the national anthem and constitutional duties was non-negotiable.
This comes almost a week after Ravi abruptly walked out of the Assembly, citing a breach of protocol after the national anthem was not played at the beginning of a session . It has intensified the political climate in the state. Following the footsteps of the main Opposition party, AIADMK, and its ally DMDK, the BJP on Sunday announced that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would boycott the February 5 Erode East Assembly bypoll because of concerns about “fairness”.
Addressing the Assembly on Saturday, Stalin criticised the Governor for walking out of the session on January 6, likening his action to the “childish” behaviour that his father and DMK leader M Karunanidhi described in a popular dialogue he wrote for a movie. Before joining politics, Karunanidhi made a name for himself in the Tamil film industry as a screenwriter.
“Like the famous movie dialogue of Kalaignar (Karunanidhi), ’the court hall has witnessed a lot of strange cases’, this Assembly has also witnessed strange scenes as far as the Governor is concerned. The Governor walks into the House but leaves without delivering the address,” Stalin said.
He went on to say, “This House is a century-old institution created with the participation of crores of people. It has never witnessed a Governor act against the sentiments of the people and disrespect long-held conventions with political motives.”
Stalin accused the Governor of not being able to digest Tamil Nadu’s development under the DMK. “The DMK will win for the seventh time in the elections to be held in 2026. This term will be the foundation for a record seventh term,” he said. The CM also alleged that Ravi had avoided delivering his address to the Assembly in the past three years by citing “absurd reasons”.
In a strongly worded response, Ravi accused Stalin of “arrogance” and “betraying the true intentions” of his party. “Thiru M K Stalin asserts that insisting on due respect to the National Anthem is ‘absurd’ and ‘childish’. Thanks for betraying the true intentions of the coalition of interests and ideologies to which he is a leader that does not accept and respect Bharat as a nation and Her Constitution. Such arrogance is not good. Please do not forget that Bharat is the supreme Mother and the Constitution the supreme faith for her children. They will not like or tolerate such brazen insult,” the Raj Bhavan posted on X on Sunday. The DMK has not yet responded to the Governor’s latest remarks.
On January 6, as the Assembly convened for its first session of the year, the proceedings began with the recital of the Tamil Thai Vaazhthu, the state’s official song, as per tradition. However, the absence of the national anthem triggered objections from the Governor, who reportedly appealed to Stalin and Speaker M Appavu to ensure its inclusion. With his request turned down, Ravi left the Assembly less than five minutes after the session began.
The Governor’s critique follows a larger pattern of friction between the Raj Bhavan and the state government, often reigniting debates about constitutional propriety and political one-upmanship. In January 2023, Ravi suggested that the word ‘Tamizhagam’ was the “appropriate” name for Tamil Nadu, adding that “Nadu” gives the impression of talking about a separate “country”. Facing criticism from the DMK and even the AIADMK, Ravi eventually backtracked and issued a clarification, but only after a clash with the state government and an episode that saw him walk out of the Assembly.
The two sides again locked horns over Bills passed by the state Assembly but held up by the Raj Bhavan. In April 2023, the state Assembly adopted a resolution in which it criticised Raj Bhavan for stalling Bills and asked the Centre to fix a “specific time limit” for “Governors to give assent to Bills passed by the Legislatures”. That June, Ravi said at an event that state identities in India were the result of “administrative convenience” rather than “cultural preservation”. He also called these identities “fictional” and “divisive”, again touching a raw nerve among parties in the state.
As the latest row between the Raj Bhavan and the government plays out, state BJP president K Annamalai announced the NDA’s decision to boycott the Erode East bypoll, referring to it as a “by-election for a by-election”. This was a reference to allegations of malpractice during the 2022 polls in the same constituency. “The coming 2026 Assembly polls are meant to remove the DMK from power. The NDA is moving towards that target and does not want to allow the DMK to confine people like cattle once again,” Annamalai said.
On Saturday, the AIADMK announced it was skipping the bypoll, citing the ruling party’s alleged misuse of official machinery and money power in previous polls. “The DMK used muscle power to win the Erode East bypoll in 2023. They will deploy the same tactics again, preventing peaceful voting,” said AIADMK chief and former CM Edappadi Palaniswami.
The DMK, which has fielded V C Chandrakumar in the bypoll, has dismissed the boycott as an admission of electoral defeat.
