Recall governor, demands Stalin as singers miss a line from TN anthem

Chennai: Singers missed a line from Tamil Nadu's state anthem during its rendition in an event presided by Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi here on Friday and it led to a war of words between Chief Minister M K Stalin and Ravi besides resulting in a political uproar.

In the Doordarshan Kendra Chennai's Hindi month valedictory function, a sentence "Thekkanamum adhil sirantha Dravida nal thiru naadum" went missing when the singers sang the anthem at the DD Tamil office here.

Reacting to it, the chief minister accused the governor of insulting the unity of the country, Tamil Nadu and its people and demanded that he be recalled by the Centre. He said that a person who doesn't abide by the law and acts as per his wishes was not fit to hold that office and wondered if Ravi was a governor or an 'Aryan.' AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami strongly condemned the omission and said it was a blunder and other parties including Congress condemned the Governor.

Ravi termed Stalin's reaction as regrettable and accused the CM of making a racist remark against him and for having levelled, "false allegation of showing disrespect to Tamizh Thaai Valthu." Ravi said the allegation against him was "unfortunately cheap and lowers the dignity of the high constitutional office of the chief minister." Meanwhile, Doordarshan Kendra Chennai apologised for 'inadvertent mistake,' and said singers had no intention to disrespect Tamil or Tamizh Thaai Valthu, the state song.

Taking strong exception, Stalin said removing the words was a violation.

The chief minister, in a post on social media, accused the governor of insulting the unity of the country and the people of different races living in the land, under the guise of observing Hindi month.

"Will the governor, suffering from the Dravidian allergy, ask the people to sing the national anthem leaving out Dravida?" the chief minister asked and demanded the Centre to immediately recall Ravi for deliberating insulting Tamil Nadu and the sentiments of the people of the state.

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.

Furthermore, he 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." Ravi said, "Since he (Stalin) rushed to public with his racist remarks and false imputations, I am constrained to respond." AIADMK general secretary and former Chief Minister Palaniswami said: "It was a blunder to skip the words. This is highly condemnable. The word Dravidam is a great revolution against oppression." The word Dravidian stood for the world's oldest civilisation. "Whoever has omitted it hurt the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu and belittles the Dravidian culture and such actions should be stopped," Palaniswami said on 'X'.

As the controversy over skipping a line from the state anthem raged, Doordarshan Kendra, Chennai, later clarified that a line was "inadvertently missed" while rendering the Tamizh Thaai Valthu, and "this happened due to a distraction." "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.

The Tamizh Thaai Valthu was made the state anthem after M K Stalin became Chief Minister in 2021. The song was authored by Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai. The DD event also marked beginning of the golden jubilee celebrations of Doordarshan Chennai, which commenced operations here in 1975.