Chennai: Allaying apprehensions about a possible overbearing role he could play given his NSA and Intelligence Bureau background, Tamil Nadu's new Governor RN Ravi on Saturday made it clear that he would function within the parameters laid out in the constitution.
Ravi, who will continue to simultaneously discharge his role as interlocutor in Nagaland where he had also served as Governor, was sworn in as Governor of Tamil Nadu by Madras High Court Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee at a colourful ceremony at the Raj Bhavan. Chief Minister M K Stalin, his cabinet colleagues and other leaders greeted him.
His appointment in Tamil Nadu had triggered apprehensions that he was sent by the Centre to keep the DMK government on a leash.
However, shortly after taking oath, Ravi had a brief formal chat with journalists (in Nagaland he had not engaged with the media prompting journalists to boycott his farewell ceremony), said he hoped to make his relationship with the DMK government “as beautiful as possible in the days to come”. He minced no words I acknowledging that in a democracy governance was the responsibility of the elected government.
Asked about apprehensions among certain political parties such as the Congress on a former Intelligence Bureau officer was being made Governor, he said: “The slate of our relationship [Governor and Government] is absolutely new and clean. My effort will be to make it as beautiful as possible in the days to come".
Seeking to strike an emotional chord, he said India had benefited enormously from the intellectual, spiritual, artistic wealth of Tamil Nadu and its political wisdom. “In fact, this place and the people have influenced and shaped to a great deal the very idea of India,” he said.
Noting that Tamil Nadu had in place, a popular government mandated by the people, he said, “Governance is the responsibility of the government. Governor is to function within the parameters of the Constitution. I will try to keep that in mind,” he said.
It was too premature for him to comment on the DMK government. Nonetheless, he felt it seemed to be doing well, especially in the way it had handled COVID-19 and brought down the number of cases.
