Complaints against Tamil Nadu and West Bengal Governors marked President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to a joint sitting of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha on the first day of the Budget Session of the Parliament.
The Tamil Nadu MPs stood and shouted just as President Kovind began his address. They did not carry any placards or raise slogans. They urged the President to listen to their complaint and take action against Governor R.N. Ravi and duly stopped their protest once the customary address started.
The Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Bill in September last year, seeking exemption from NEET for students from the State. It seeks to revert to admitting students into medical colleges based on Class XII marks. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had written to at least 12 of his counterparts, calling for united efforts to restore States’ primacy in the administration of the education sector.
“Tamil Nadu Governor, by ignoring a key Bill passed by the elected representatives of the State, is silencing the voice of the State Assembly and jeopardising the future of students of the State,” Congress MP Manickam Tagore said. Just as President Kovind was leaving after the address, Trinamool Congress’s Lok Sabha floor leader Sudip Bandhopadhyay urged him to sack West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar. “I requested President Kovind that to save our Parliamentary democracy, it is important that West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar is removed from the State,” Mr. Bandhopadyay told reporters.
