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Condemning the Raj Bhavan for citing a legal provision for imprisonment against any attempt to ‘restrain’ the governor from exercising his power, the DMK has asserted that it would continue to fight to protect Tamil Nadu’s autonomy.
“I strongly condemn the Raj Bhavan statement and the Governor for trying to do direct politics on behalf of the DMK. The party will not run away from the responsibility and will not be cowed down by such empty threats,” Stalin said in a statement last night.
His reaction came hours after the Raj Bhavan issued a strongly worded statement taking exception to the DMK’s continuing protests against Banwarilal Purohit’s district visits and the party’s ‘siege Raj Bhavan’ stir on Saturday.
The Raj Bhavan had said the governor enjoys “unhindered freedom” to interact with officials and cited a legal provision providing seven years imprisonment to those “restraining” him from exercising in any manner any of the lawful powers.
The DMK working president said that the media used the term ‘review’ by the Governor and it was not known whether the Raj Bhavan has issued any communication to them advising not to use the word.
“DMK only protested when the governor organised meeting of officials in districts thereby interfering in the rights of an elected government,” he said.
Claiming that governors in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal did not conduct such review meetings, Stalin said, “Since the Governor is a representative of the ruling BJP, he is playing the role of the Tamil Nadu BJP president.”
“The people of Tamil Nadu and media have understood that through such review meetings, he is seeking to help the BJP’s vote bank politics,” Stalin alleged and asserted that the DMK would continue to fight to protect ‘federalism’ and the state’s autonomy.
On June 23, the DMK had held a ‘siege Raj Bhavan’ stir demanding Purohit’s resignation and had said the party would intensify its protest if he continued to hold review meeting in districts.
Ever since Purohit assumed office last year, he has been touring districts, for which he faced flak from the principal opposition party the DMK, which alleged he was holding review meetings ‘like a chief minister.’
Purohit, who has defended his visits and were just interactions with officials.
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