‘Guv must stop commenting in violation of Constitutional oath’

CHENNAI: The ruling DMK on Monday upped its ante against Governor RN Ravi and cautioned him not to make comments in violation of his Constitutional oath.

Taking exception to the Governor’s remark that the Colonial British had identified people as Dravidians and divided people, DMK Parliamentary Party leader cum party treasurer TR Baalu said the British united the divided kings and princely states as India and ruled the country. “One could say that they (British) exploited the caste, racial and linguistic differences here, but, to claim that they created the differences was tantamount to covering up history, ” Baalu said in a statement.

“The Governor could understand who were the architects of such divisions if he reads the historic literature from the Vedic times. The country is not under British rule now. India is ruled by the BJP now. The Governor could do whatever is possible in his capacity to remove the discrimination, the DMK treasurer remarked, before requesting him not to cover up history to divert attention from contemporary problems.

Reminding Ravi that even posts like Governor and Governor-general were created by the British rulers, the DMK MP said that he should abstain from making such remarks in violation of the Constitutional oath he took while taking over as the Governor of the state.

Wondering if the term Dravidian did not exist in India before the arrival of the British in 1600 AD, Baalu said that the Dravidian movement had advanced the politics of Tamil by taking up the racial, geographic and linguistic discrimination suffered by them for thousands of years. Dravidian movement has been filling up in the last 100 years a void created 1,000 years ago, he remarked and added that people who are unable to tolerate it are panicking at the mere mention of the term Dravidian, as did the Governor in his speech.