Lakshmana Venkat Kuchi

On the negative side of publicity and adverse public perception about the party, and near-certain damage to the BJP’s efforts to strike and deepen roots in Tamil Nadu, the party has distanced itself from the controversy created by state governor RN Ravi. The governor wanted to change the name of the state and had stoked a controversy by ignoring the advice of the council of ministers and deviating from the prepared text for speech in the assembly. Thus he managed to become the first governor in the state to disregard a speech prepared by the government, and also the first governor to walk out of the assembly in a huff. 

This sparked off a huge row with the governor versus government’s big fight escalating and eventually reaching the President and the union government. Demand for his removal came strongly from the ruling DMK which managed to successfully paint the governor and his actions as against the interests of the people of the state, and also as Constitutionally improper. Now, this first round in the ongoing big fight appears to have gone in favour of the ruling DMK and Tamil Nadu government, after the governor backtracked and come out with a facer saver of an explanation and that his comments were improperly interpreted and that he did not suggest changing the name of the state to Tamizhagam from current Tamil Nadu. 

Already, the message gone down to the masses in Tamil Nadu, courtesy of the media ecosystem that the ruling party in the state controls and manipulates is that the governor was playing the BJP game and that he has turned the Raj Bhavan into an RSS-BJP propaganda unit. 

For the BJP, which has been struggling for years to strike roots in the state it finds very tough to enter, the governor’s moves dealt a deadly blow. All its efforts to placate and appeal to the Tamilian masses on language, culture and regional identity came to a nought after the governor criticised the Dravidian politics and Dravidian rulers and more insultingly, suggested the name of the state be changed to Tamizhagam from the current Tamil Nadu. To be fair, the governor did not say so in so many words, but that was the intention behind the speech. And this was how it was interpreted by the ruling DMK and also AIADMK which is the BJP’s alliance partner, and they sharply rejected the contention outright. 

Such was the impact of the negative public perception building up over the governor, his utterances and actions, that even the state BJP unit had to come out against the views expressed by the governor. In fact, the DMK launched a major protest against the governor and sought his removal for his actions going against the Constitutional norms and practices. 

If TN BJP president  K Annamalai came out against the governor’s Tamizhagam more appropriate name for Tamil Nadu, the governor himself made a U-turn and sought to wriggle out of the controversy saying that he had merely commented from a historical perspective and his statements were interpreted in a manner that is not right. Explaining his stance, the Raj Bhavan issued a press statement to assert that it was erroneous and far-fetched to conclude that his comments on Tamizhagam suggested a name change for the state.

“An interpretation or inference that it was a suggestion to change the name of Tamil Nadu is erroneous and far-fetched,” the governor said in the press statement. “In an event at Raj Bhavan on January 4, 2023, to felicitate the volunteers of Kashi – Tamil Sangamam, a recently concluded month-long festival celebrating the age-old cultural connect of Tamil people with Kashi, while dwelling upon the historical cultural connect between the two, I referred to the word ‘Tamizhagam’. In those days, there was no Tamil Nadu’. Hence in a historical cultural context, I referred to the word ‘Tamizhagam’ as a ‘more appropriate expression’.”

This statement indicating the backtracking by the governor is being viewed as a victory for the ruling DMK and the TN government, which lost no time in whipping up a vicious perception-building campaign across the state. Besides, for the ruling DMK, it gave an emotive issue to beat the governor and the ruling government at the Centre.

Now even the state BJP has come out against the governor’s stand on the Tamizhagam issue in a bid to control damage to its own image among the people. BJP state unit president K Annamalai said that the governor’s remarks on name change were “unnecessary”.

Clarifying that the controversy over the name change was “one without any productive outcome”, Annamalai also disagreed with the Raj Bhavan’s decision to issue invitations for Pongal without the state emblem but added that it may have been due to a “clerical error”.

In an interview with a private television channel, the BJP TN chief said, “The BJP does not agree with the opinion that the state’s name should be changed. Controversy over Tamil Nadu and Tamizhagam was unnecessary. The controversy was not going to bring out any productive outcome.”

He himself would not accept the governor’s suggestion on the name change, the BJP leader said in what now appears as a damage control activity. “If you ask whether Annamalai will accept that suggestion, I will not. He (Governor) was giving a suggestion, not everyone needs to accept it.”

But this latest stance of Annamalai is totally at variance with the one he took the moment governor Ravi stoked the controversy. At that time Annamalai backed the governor fully, though some local BJP leaders had expressed their reservations. 

But apparently, the central BJP leaders realised that the controversy was not helping the BJP in any way, especially after TN Chief Minister MK Stalin came out strongly against the governor with facts, and constitutional provisions, traditions to prove that the governor indeed was on the wrong foot.