M K Stalin: Governor ready to reconsider dist visits

CHENNAI: In an unusual move, Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit invited Opposition leader and DMK working president M K Stalin for a meeting in Raj Bhavan on Tuesday and explained to him the rationale behind his review meetings with district officials and the process behind the appointment of Tamma Suryanarayana Sastry, a former professor of Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University, as the new Vice-Chancellor of the university.
The governor has consented to reconsider his visits to districts for reviewing projects and government schemes, Stalin told reporters after the meeting in which senior party leader S Duraimurugan also took part.

DMK and other opposition parties have flayed governor’s visits and his review meetings as an infringement of state’s autonomy. Since the governor continued with his visits, DMK workers resorted to black-flag demonstrations during his visits to the districts.

“We told the governor that his visits and meetings with district officials were against democratic norms and state’s autonomy. When there is a government — whether it has majority or not and whether it’s AIADMK or DMK government — how can a governor, a central appointee, call for such meetings in districts on his own?” asked Stalin.

Kept in dark on what the meeting was for, says Stalin

The governor explained that he was not holding review meetings with district officials, but was only trying to understand the progress in various districts. “This explanation was not acceptable to us and we drew the governor’s attention to steps taken by DMK stalwarts C N Annadurai and M Karunanidhi to reiterate the state’s autonomy. After having listened to us with an open mind, the governor has promised to review his visits to the districts,” said Stalin.

However, it turned out that this was not the agenda for which the governor was keen to meet Stalin. “We received an invitation late on Monday that the governor would like to meet us on Tuesday evening. But, we were in the dark about what the meeting was about. Only in the meeting, we got to know that the governor wanted to explain in person about the process behind the appointment of the new VC (Tamma Suryanarayana Sastry, a former professor of Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University) to the law university,” Stalin said.

The appointment of Sastry as the VC of the law university has come under attack from the opposition parties, including the DMK, in the state. Stalin had personally written a letter to the state governor drawing his attention to the appointment of Sastry.

“The governor explained that Sastry’s name was selected from a list of three names recommended to him for the appointment of VC for the law university. But we drew governor’s attention to the fact that there were complaints against Sastry and disciplinary action too was taken against him. While agreeing to that, the governor said a clean chit had been given by a committee that was appointed to go into the complaints against Sastry,” said Stalin.