Chennai: Hours after removing Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader V. Senthil Balaji from the council of ministers, Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi has put his decision in abeyance and decided to seek the attorney general’s advice on the matter, ThePrint has learnt.
Around 7:30 pm Thursday, the Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan had issued a statement saying Balaji’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged cash-for-jobs scam was the reason for his dismissal. Balaji, Tamil Nadu’s minister of electricity, prohibition and excise minister, was arrested earlier this month. ThePrint has a copy of the statement.
But in a second letter to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin the same day, the governor wrote, “I have been advised by the Hon’ble Union Minister of Home Affairs [Amit Shah] that it would be prudent to seek the opinion of the Attorney General also. Accordingly, I am approaching the Attorney General for his opinion. Meanwhile, the order of dismissal of the minister Thiru V. Senthil Balaji may be kept in abeyance until further communication from me.” ThePrint has a copy of the letter.
Governor Ravi, while previously alleging an “unhealthy bias” on the part of the CM in retaining Balaji as minister despite his arrest, had said it was with “the powers conferred to me under Article 154, 163 and 164 of the Constitution of India” that he was dismissing Senthil. All three articles pertain to the the powers and responsibilities of the governor.
In the five-page letter to the CM, a copy of which is with ThePrint, the governor had also criticised Stalin — the DMK chief — and said, “Instead of taking my advice in fair 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 my Constitutional limits. Your response disappointed me to say the least.”
Tamil Nadu higher education minister K. Ponmudy had told the media earlier this month that Governor Ravi had written to the CM on 31 May, asking him to remove Senthil Balaji from the cabinet. On 1 June, Ponmudy claimed, the CM had rejected the Governor’s suggestion with elaborate legal reasoning and had replied that under Article 161 (1) of the Constitution, only a CM elected by the people, and not the governor, had the authority to recommend or decide the inclusion/removal of a person from the cabinet.
Following the Governor’s dismissal order regarding Balaji Thursday, CM Stalin had also told the media that “the Governor does not have the power to dismiss the minister and we will proceed legally in the matter.”
The ruling DMK in the state has been at constant loggerheads with the governor over the past many months, and termed Thursday’s move as “vendetta politics”.
Talking to ThePrint, DMK member of Parliament, P. Wilson alleged, “The governor’s letter [dismissing Balaji] can be simply ignored. He has no constitutional power at all (to dismiss a minister).”
ThePrint reached the Raj Bhavan over phone for comment on the allegations, the copy will be updated once a response is received.
While parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) have come out in support of the DMK and voiced criticism of the Tamil Nadu Governor on the issue, the opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state have hit out at CM Stalin’s alleged “double standards”.
‘Governor a liability to the state’
Governor Ravi and the ruling government in the state have been locking horns on several issues, like Dravidian ideology, Sanathana Dharma, appointing of vice-chancellors to state universities and now, Balaji’s dismissal from the council of ministers.
“He (Governor) keeps raising issues like Dravidian ideology, Santhana Dharma and in the house he says he won’t read the names of ‘Periyar’. This is how his confrontational attitude is going on. He has become a liability to the state now,” Wilson told ThePrint.
While addressing the first session of the Tamil Nadu assembly this year, Ravi had skipped some sections of his speech which had references to Dravidar Kazhagam founder Periyar, father of the Indian Constitution B. R. Ambedkar, former chief ministers K. Kamaraj and C. N. Annadurai.
He had also stoked controversy by suggesting that the state of Tamil Nadu should realistically be called ‘Tamzihagam’. Tamil Nadu originally means Tamil ‘land’, now also read as ‘Tamil country’. ‘Tamizhagam’, on the other hand, means the ‘abode’ or ‘land’ of the Tamil people and was the name of the ancient Tamil country.
Explaining the legalities involved in Balaji’s dismissal, Wilson, who is also a senior advocate said, “There are three categories as far as MPs, MLAs and ministers who are facing investigation are concerned. One is investigation, two is filing of chargesheet, and three is convicted after trial. Only in the third category the Supreme Court and law says that once you are convicted you can’t hold any portfolio of minister, MP or MLA.”
Pointing out that Senthil was still in the investigation stage, the DMK questioned how the Governor could disqualify Senthil using “Supreme Court observations”.
In May this year the Supreme Court had made a series of observations while hearing Balaji’s case, indicating serious misconduct by Balaji using the “shield of office” to protect himself from lawful consequences and obstructing the due process of law.
Wilson added: “It is a vendetta politics. He [Ravi] is actually scuttling the government from functioning [sic].”
On 14 June Balaji was arrested by the ED in a cash-for-job scam case. It has been alleged that during his 2011-2015 tenure as transport minister in the then AIADMK government, Senthil and his allies had taken money from job aspirants promising them employment in the transport department.
The minister who was diagnosed with a heart condition soon after the arrest, was moved to a hospital in Chennai for treatment and the state had reassigned his portfolios and made him a ‘minister without portfolio’.
Terming the DMK chief’s stand to support Balaji a “double standard”, AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan told the media in Chennai Friday, “We have been saying that M.K. Stalin has been the most incompetent chief minister Tamil Nadu has ever had. The governor had initially sent a letter that V. Senthil Balaji cannot continue as minister. M.K. Stalin’s double standards are being exposed — when he was in the opposition his stand was different, had demanded dismissal of then minister [C] Vijayabaskar [in 2017], who was facing investigation [income tax raids]. His stand is different now that he is in the ruling party.”
Tamil Nadu BJP chief K. Annamalai also took to Twitter to comment on the issue.
“BJP Tamil Nadu, for now, reserves its comments on the dismissal of Cash for Job Scam Thiru Senthil Balaji from the council of ministers by the Hon Governor of TN. However, we want to remind TN CM Thiru @mkstalin of his doublespeak. In 2018, the then-opposition leader demanded that a Minister be sacked by the Hon Governor as there was a corruption allegation against him. What has changed between then & now? DMK’s drama wouldn’t change the fact that Thiru Senthil Balaji is an accused under arrest!” he tweeted.
BJP Tamil Nadu, for now, reserves its comments on the dismissal of Cash for Job Scam Thiru Senthil Balaji from the council of ministers by the Hon Governor of TN.
However, we want to remind TN CM Thiru @mkstalin of his doublespeak.
In 2018, the then-opposition leader demanded… pic.twitter.com/AfJ3GF6QY3
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) June 30, 2023
Support for DMK
Parties like the RJD and Trinamool Congress on the other hand, have come out in support of the DMK.
Posters have appeared in parts of Chennai criticising the governor for his initial move in dismissing Balaji. The posters question if the governor would write a similar letter to Delhi to dismiss Union ministers who allegedly have pending cases against them.
RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha was quoted in the media Thursday as saying, “Tamil Nadu governor has done this on diktat from Delhi [the BJP government at the Centre]. He has violated the constitutional scheme of things. BJP is committing acts for which there’s no provision in the Constitution.”
In a statement issued Thursday, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that the action of Governor Ravi was “outrightly unconstitutional” and these decisions come under the “exclusive domain” of the chief minister.
Trinamool Congress national spokesperson Saket Gokhale added: “The dismissal of the Tamil Nadu minister V. Senthil Balaji by the Governor without even consulting the chief minister is nothing but an absolute violation of the Constitution of India. The fight that all opposition parties are fighting today is the fight to save our Constitution and we are together with the DMK in this fight.”
The DMK was among 15 parties — including the Congress, the TMC, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the RJD, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), Samajwadi Party (SP) and others — which met in Patna earlier this month, in what is being seen as a likely beginning to the formation of a united front of parties in opposition to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Centre.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
Also read: ‘Don’t provoke DMK workers’ — Stalin’s ‘warning’ to BJP after Senthil Balaji’s arrest