The ongoing tussle between Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi and the ruling DMK government turned critical on Friday as the state government decided to “disregard” both the communications from the Governor on allowing minister V. Senthil Balaji to continue in the council of ministers.
“I reiterate that you have no power to dismiss my ministers. That is the sole prerogative of an elected chief minister. Your unconstitutional communication dismissing my minister without my advice is ab initio and non-use in law and has been disregarded,” Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said in a strongly worded letter to Governor Ravi.
Later, on Friday evening, the Chief Minister in his letter to the governor said that the governor's communication made it clear that “he did not even take a legal opinion before such an important decision. The fact that it needed the Home Minister’s intervention to direct you to take a legal opinion on this matter itself shows that you have acted in haste with scant regard to the constitution of India.”
Stating that he and his council of ministers enjoy the confidence of the people who are the ultimate sovereign, Stalin also said that the “governor while dealing with an elected government must act with dignity and not stoop to levelling unsubstantiated threats about breakdown of constitutional machinery.” Giving reply to the specific observations made by the governor in the case of Senthil Balaji, Stalin explained that disqualification takes effect from the date of conviction according to the constitution.
Earlier, Stalin held a closed-door meeting with senior party leaders and legal experts to discuss the letters sent by the governor and the next course of action. Emerging out of the meeting, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu, along with Law Minister S. Raghupathy and DMK Rajya Sabha MP P. Wilson told the media that “Tamil Nadu government has decided to disregard both the communications of Governor Ravi on allowing minister V. Senthil Balaji to continue in the council of ministers. The governor has no power to dismiss or appoint a minister and that's the sole prerogative of the Chief Minister.”
“There are ulterior motives behind the action against Senthil Balaji and singling him out,” Thennarasu said pointing out that there are at least 11 cases pending against serving Union Ministers who are continuing in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet. To a question on the Governor’s contentions that Senthil Balaji continuing could influence the ongoing investigation in the case against him, Thennarasu replied, “he is currently under judicial custody. How can he influence the investigation?”
Earlier, the governor had sent two communications to the chief minister. The first was dropping Senthil Blaji from the council of ministers. The five-page letter from the governor, with a detailed timeline of the events that followed in Senthil Balaji’s case, and the list of communications between him and the chief minister made it clear that Ravi was breaching the constitutional limits.
Listing out the reasons why Senthil Balaji should not continue in the cabinet, the Governor said that he recommended Balaji’s removal to ensure due process of law besides constitutional morality and conscience. “Instead of taking my advice in the right spirit, you responded with an inflammatory letter dated 01.06.2023, in which you, instead of giving due consideration to my advice, used intemperate language and accused me of overstepping constitutional limits. Your response disappointed me - to say the least,” governor wrote in his letter to the chief minister. He also said that the chief minister allowing Balaji to continue in the cabinet reflected his “unhealthy bias.”
However, within four hours after sending out this letter to the government, Ravi sent out a second communication that the dismissal order was “on hold” pending legal advice.
In the meantime, Ravi’s flip-flop decisions on Senthil Balaji and the letters to and fro from the governor and chief minister have renewed the debate on the constitutional powers of the governor. Though Ravi has kept in “abeyance” his decision to dismiss Balaji and the state government has decided to disregard this, it has exacerbated the running feud between the governor and the government and has also turned into an issue for the opposition to rally together against the central government.
