Tamil Thai Vaazhthu now has Udhayanidhi Stalin at the receiving end

CHENNAI: Tamil Thai Vaazhthu, the official State invocation song of Tamil Nadu, was back in the headlines on Friday after a technical glitch contributed to its repeated rendering at a State government event in the city.

Unlike last week when the Raj Bhavan was in the thick of the controversy, the ruling DMK or rather its Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin was at the receiving end of the Tamil Thai Vaazhthu row this time.

The reported controversy unfolded at the event organised to distribute postgraduate certificates to 19 students under the Chief Minister's Fellowship Programme at the Secretariat this morning. During the commencement of the event, Tamil Thai Vaazhthu was sung for a second time after some hiccups in the first attempt.

Later when reporters egged him on the 'wrong' rendering of the invocation song, Udhayanidhi clarified, "It was a technical glitch. The microphone did not work properly. Voices (of the chorus) could not be heard. So, we rendered it in full again. After that, the national anthem was also sung fully. Do not create an issue unnecessarily again."

A week ago, Governor RN Ravi was in the epicentre of the Tamil Thai Vaazhthu row after the chorus organised by 'DD Tamil' to celebrate Doordarshan's golden jubilee 'skipped' the line with a reference to 'Dravidam'.

The issue whipped up a political storm and the newfound bonhomie between the Governor and the ruling DMK evaporated in a jiffy after Chief Minister MK Stalin reacted strongly to the 'omission' and demanded the recall of RN Ravi by the Centre. The issue fuelled a statement war between Fort St George and Raj Bhavan after Governor Ravi responded in kind to the CM's outrage and said the CM making 'racist' remarks and levelling 'false' allegations lowered the dignity of the CMO.