New Delhi: R.N. Ravi, the governor of Tamil Nadu has stoked fresh controversy by replacing the state government’s emblem with that of the Union government’s in the Raj Bhavan’s official Pongal invitations.Ravi also called himself the “Tamizhaga Aalunar” or “Tamizhagam governor” in the invitations to the Pongal Peruvizha festival on January 12 at the Chennai Raj Bhavan, Indian Express has reported.This comes as controversy is already afoot over Ravi suggesting that the state be renamed from ‘Tamil Nadu’ to ‘Tamizhagam’ and more recently, skipping certain portions of the text of the governor’s address to the Tamil Nadu assembly.The latter, on January 9, is learned to have led to an open confrontation in the assembly, with chief minister M.K. Stalin asking for the original text of the speech to be entered into the records and Ravi staging a walkout.Indian Express reports that earlier Pongal invitations from the Raj Bhavan read “Governor of Tamil Nadu.” The card sent by the Governor’s office for Tamil new year celebrations last year also had the same phrase.Such communication also had the Tamil Nadu government’s emblem of the tower of the Andal Temple in Srivilliputter – which has been replaced by the Union government’s this time.The roots of the ‘Ravi versus Tamil Nadu government’ tiff is not so much in the term ‘Tamizhagam’ but in how it is believed to have been used by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham party feels Ravi is supporting with these public moves.Deccan Herald notes that the outrage against the governor’s use of ‘Tamizhagam’ is in spite of the common use of the word to refer to the state. This is because of how the word is associated with the BJP. The party, DH says, has always felt the literal translation of the word ‘nadu‘ (which means country) in ‘Tamil Nadu’, “will lead to secessionist tendencies among people of the state.”
