As pending Bills add to Government-Governor stress, TN govt to boycott Raj Bhavan events

The government’s move was in protest against the alleged delay on Governor Ravi’s part in giving assent to at least 11 Bills passed by the state Assembly, including the politically sensitive anti-NEET Bill.

Towards the end of March, there were as many as 20 or 21 Bills or government recommendations pending for the Governor’s assent, a senior government secretary told The Indian Express. “Half a dozen of them were from the previous AIADMK government,” the official said.

Passed in September 2022, the NEET abolition Bill was a bid to exempt Tamil Nadu from the centralised NEET medical entrance exam so that the state can go ahead its earlier system of medical admissions based on the candidates’ Class 12 marks.

Governor Ravi had in February returned the Bill saying that it was “against the interest of students, especially (those from) rural and economically poor students of the state”, following which a special Assembly session had unanimously re-adopted the anti-NEET Bill.

After meeting Governor Ravi, state Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu and Health Minister Ma Subramanian said the government’s decision to boycott was to “uphold the constitutional values and pride of the state legislature and the sentiments of people”, including that of hundreds of medical aspirants who are waiting for their admissions in June 2022.

The government has decided that Chief Minister M K Stalin, his Cabinet ministers and MLAs of the ruling DMK will boycott two scheduled events at Raj Bhavan on Thursday evening – unveiling the statue of poet Subramania Bharathi, followed by a tea party to be hosted by Governor Ravi. DMK’s allies – Congress, Left parties, VCK and MMK – too had announced that they would stay away from the day’s events. AIADMK leaders, however, confirmed their participation.

Minister Thennarasu said Governor Ravi had forced the government’s hand as he had failed to give assurances or a schedule for giving assent to the long-pending Bills. “For instance, the anti-NEET Bill has been pending for a long time, ever since the government passed it in the Assembly last September. Initially, the Governor sat on the files for 142 days and then sent it back. The government took immediate steps to return it for assent but it was not considered. It has been held up for 208 days now,” Thennarasu said.

He added that CM Stalin had met the Governor and requested him in person, but was told that the Bill had been sent to the President. “Finally, CM Stalin raised the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi since the next academic year is coming up and the dreams of hundreds of medical aspirants depends on the Bill. But, unfortunately, when we met him today, he was again non-committal… even after 208 days,” said Thennarasu.

Other than the anti-NEET Bill, a Cabinet decision to release seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case has been pending from September 2018. Among the other Bills waiting for the Governor’s assent are the Cooperative Societies Bill to reduce the term of the cooperative societies’ board from five years to three years and one to amend the Bharathiar University Act to add five members in the syndicate.

Tamil Nadu, a state that is touchy about issues concerning autonomy and federal powers, has had several instances of the government and the Governor not seeing eye to eye. Some of the fiercest contests were between M Chenna Reddy and J Jayalalitha in 1994 and 1995. Then, during Jayalalitha’s first tenure as CM, there were standing orders to senior bureaucrats to boycott the Governor.