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Bharathi’s Naga remark sparks row, Tamil Nadu governor hits back
The senior DMK leader made the remarks during an event on Sunday, while he was accusing the governor of keeping bills passed by the cabinet pending.
A fresh war of words erupted between the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Tamil Nadu governor RN Ravi on Sunday after the party’s organising secretary RS Bharathi made an offensive observation about the people of Nagaland — a state where Ravi served as governor from 2019 to 2020 — calling them “dog-meat eaters”. The governor soon hit back, calling the remarks scurrilous and unacceptable.
The senior DMK leader made the remarks during an event on Sunday, while he was accusing the governor of keeping bills passed by the cabinet pending.
“The governor is deliberately pulling us into a fight,” said Bharathi. “Do you know what happened in Nagaland? They chased him away. Don’t mistake me. I’m giving you an example that if the dog meat eating people there have so much consciousness to do chase him away from their region, you can imagine the consciousness of the salt-eating people of Tamil Nadu,” he said.
The ruling DMK government recently moved to the Supreme Court, accusing the governor of delaying the bills.
Hours after Bharathi’s speech, the Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan posted Ravi’s reaction on X (formerly Twitter).
“Nagas are brave, honest and dignified people. A senior DMK leader publicly insulting them as ‘Dog eaters’ is scurrilous and unacceptable,” Ravi was quoted as saying. He further urged Bharathi to not hurt a community of which the whole of India is proud. “I urge Mr Bharathi not to hurt a community of which the whole of India is proud,” the post added.
A former Rajya Sabha MP, Bharathi is also the DMK’s organisation secretary. He made the remark at a party event held to mark the centenary of late party patriarch M Karunanidhi.
Before assuming the office as governor of Tamil Nadu in September 2021, Ravi was the governor of Nagaland from 2019-2021. Ravi was ‘driven out’ of Nagaland by the people of the north eastern state and they celebrated his exit like the Deepavali festival, according to the video clip posted on “X”.
He served an interlocutor between the Indian a government and the Muivah-led National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) from 2014-2021.
Governor Ravi and the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu have been at loggerheads over various administrative issues and ideological differences.
The recent conflict has been over a petrol bomb attack at the Raj Bhavan, that took place on October 25. Chief minister and DMK president MK Stalin had on last Monday said that its shameful that Tamil Nadu’s Raj Bhavan has been converted into a BJP party office and Governor Ravi has become a BJP partyman. “The governor has changed into a BJP man today,” Stalin had said, while speaking to reporters in Ramanathapuram district on October 31. “And the governor’s office has changed into the BJP’s party office. That is shameful.”
