CHENNAI: In a new twist to the ongoing tussle between Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit and the opposition parties led by the DMK over his field visits to the districts to review government departments, Raj Bhavan has threatened “imprisonment” of those preventing the governor from exercising his powers vested under the Constitution. The governor will continue to undertake such visits to the districts in future too, Raj Bhavan said in a statement.
A Raj Bhavan statement reiterated that the “office of the governor” is protected under IPC Section 124. “Attempts to restrain the governor from exercising any of the lawful powers vested on him, shall be punished with imprisonment of up to seven years, and a fine,” the statement said. Reacting to the statement, DMK working president M K Stalin charged the governor with “indulging in direct politics” and condemned the threat of imprisonment.
“The DMK is against such visits by the governor to review functioning of the government departments, since it is an attempt at parallel governance. The DMK will continue to hold black flag demonstrations in its efforts to safeguard the interests of the states,” Stalin said. The Raj Bhavan missive came in the wake of the black flag demonstration held by the DMK cadres at Namakkal during governor’s visit last week. Several DMK cadres were taken into custody. Protesting the arrests, Stalin led a protest march towards Raj Bhavan to lay siege to the governor’s residence. Stalin and his party members were taken into custody and were released later.
The Raj Bhavan statement said, “he (Stalin) is either ignorant of the law or attempting to overawe by threatening to besiege Raj Bhavan or block the roads leading to the Raj Bhavan.” In his counter argument, Stalin pointed out that such reviews by the governor is not taking place in other BJP ruled states. “Even in Tamil Nadu such reviews had not taken place in the past. The AIADMK government may not have the will to oppose this, but, DMK being a strong willed party and fighting to safeguard the rights of the states under the federal system, will continue to oppose such visits within the democratically permitted norms of protests,” Stalin said.
