Governor Ravi’s tirade has brought more support to the DMK: Stalin

Chennai, Jan 24 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi’s rant against the DMK has only led to more support for the ruling party, the party President and Chief Minister M K Stalin said here on Friday.

Addressing party workers on the occasion of the cadres from Seeman-led Naam Tamizhar Katchi (NTK) joining the DMK, Stalin, without naming the NTK or its founder, said his party would not be deterred by criticism of the Dravidian ideology and would continue to harp on the Dravidian model of governance.

Only in the face of it, the DMK continued to grow and the disparaging remarks of Seeman brought hordes of NTK cadres to the side of the ruling party. Tamil nationalist Seeman and his party, the NTK are opposed to the Dravidian ideology, iconic leader Periyar EV Ramasamy and the DMK as well.

Making a comparison, the chief minister said though regretfully, Governor Ravi had been ‘doing unnecessary things’ and spoke against the ruling dispensation’s ideological standpoint on Dravidianism, using religion as a pivot, such rant only led to more support for the DMK.

“Some people demand withdrawal of Governor Ravi. However, have we ever passed a resolution on that demand? No such resolution has been passed in the Assembly. He should be the Governor and the DMK will grow further,” Stalin said.

Next year too, Governor Ravi should come to the Assembly for the customary address to the House and, “we will give the address to him and he should go without reading it and people must see that.”

Further, Stalin said he appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to not shift Ravi out of Tamil Nadu. “Let him be here as the Governor.”

Similarly, Seeman should continue his tirade against the Dravidian ideology and people would clearly understand the ploy and not support the NTK. There was no reason to be concerned about Seeman’s criticism and ‘let us do our work,’ he added.

In his address, the CM did not directly name the NTK or Seeman.