TN Assembly Speaker flays Guv, walks out of Speaker’s meeting

Prayagraj, PTI: Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M Appavu walked out of a meeting of his counterparts in Patna on Monday after accusing Governor R N Ravi of continuing to ‘disrespect’ the people of the state, elected government and century-old TN Legislative Assembly. Ravi’s activities were ‘deeply worrying.’ he said.

Citing the recommendations of the Punchhi, Sarkaria, Rajamannar and Venkatachaliah Commissions, on appointment of Governors, Appavu argued that the state legislature should be empowered to ‘remove’ the Governor through a resolution and the wording that the ‘Governor shall hold office during the pleasure of the President’ from Article 156 of the Constitution should be deleted.

However, Deputy Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Harivansh Narayan objected to his comments and said his remarks would not be recorded in the minutes of the meeting of the 85th All India Presiding Officers’ Conference in Patna.

He cautioned Appavu to desist from making remarks on the Governor. Protesting, Appavu stated “if I cannot speak about this in this conference, then where else can I speak,” and staged a walkout. A release from the state government said that the Speaker was addressing at the meeting on the topic “75th anniversary of Constitution: Contribution of arliament and State Legislative Bodies in Strengthening Constitutional Values.”