Syed Ali Mujtaba / Chennai
Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi, who was invited as the Chief Guest for an event at Madurai’s Thiagarajar Engineering College, is reported to have urged the students to chant the ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogan.
The event, titled ‘Kambar in Educational Institutions’, was organised at Madurai’s Thiagarajar Engineering College, a Government-aided college, to distribute prizes to the winners in a literary contest.
The Governor, while delivering his keynote address in his closing remarks, asked the students to chant the slogan ‘Jai Sri Ram.’
This act of the Governor has started a turf war between the representatives of Aryavarta and the people living in Dravidstan or Tamil Nadu.
In Tamil Nadu’s educational curriculum, particularly in the Tamil language, “Kambar’s Ramayanam, written by Tamil poet Kambar, is being taught, which is very different from the Ramayana written by Valmiki and later Tulsi Das.
While Tulsi Ramayana has transcended from a work of fiction to “religious scripture,” in Aryavarta, the Kambar Ramayana remains a work of literature in Tamil Nadu.
The State Platform for Common School System (SPCSS), an organisation comprising educationists, in a statement, has demanded the immediate removal of Tamil Nadu Governor from his post for “violating his oath of office.”
“Mr. R. N. Ravi was invited as the Chief Guest in his capacity as the Governor of the State of Tamil Nadu. He was not invited as a preacher of a particular religion. He was not asked to give a religious sermon,” the statement said.
The SPCSS pointed out that the college where the Governor made the students chant the ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogan was functioning out of the Grant-in-Aid provided by the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Government of India.
“Education is a secular activity, and in official functions, the students should not be given any religious instructions and no one should instruct students to chant the name of a God of a particular religion,” the SPCSS said.
It added, “After being slammed by the Supreme Court for blocking the bills passed by the State Government, the Governor is now resorting to stunts like this, making students chant slogans like ‘Jai Shri Ram.’
“The students passively obeyed the Governor’s command to prevent unnecessary embarrassment to him.”
The SPCSS statement said, “Governor Ravi is illiterate in terms of his knowledge of the curriculum and syllabus followed in Tamil Nadu’s schools and colleges. Due to his ignorance and arrogance, he continues to propagate wrong ideas aimed at disturbing peace and instigating one group against another.”
The Governor, without basic knowledge on how students learn the religious text in a secular environment, was making “misguiding statements,” the SPCSS concluded.
RN Ravi, after taking the post of the Governor of Tamil Nadu on September 18, 2021, has courted several controversies that have had a huge fallout in the state.
In April 2023, Mr. Ravi proclaimed that when a Governor withholds assent to a Bill passed by the Assembly, it means the “Bill is dead”.
In February 2022, Governor Ravi said, “I will never clear the NEET Bill.’ He returned to the Assembly Speaker the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill 2021.
On the evening of June 29, 2023, Governor Ravi unilaterally “dismissed V. Senthilbalaji from the Council of Ministers with immediate effect.” Later, he hurriedly backtracked on his decision.
In March 2024, the Governor refused to reinstate K. Ponmudy into the Cabinet, though the Supreme Court had suspended his conviction in a corruption case. Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud slammed Mr. Ravi for “defying the Supreme Court order” by refusing to reinduct Mr. Ponmudy as Minister.
On October 25, 2023, a man hurled a Molotov cocktail at the main gate of the Raj Bhavan in Chennai. The police overpowered the accused and took him into custody. However, the Raj Bhavan claimed that more than one person was involved in the attack. Subsequently, the National Investigation Agency, after investigation, rejected the Raj Bhavan’s claim.