Congress floor leader in the Tamil Nadu Assembly K. Selvaperunthagai is likely to meet Speaker M. Appavu on Tuesday and request him to remove the speech of Tiruchengode MLA E.R. Eswaran, who hailed the absence of the slogan Jai Hind in the Governor’s address.
“For many years, the usage of Jai Hind has been there in the Governor’s address. But the omission this time does not seem to be a deliberate one. They just went ahead with Nandri, Vanakkam. Even the Governor has not asked about it [leaving out the slogan],” Mr. Selvaperunthagai told The Hindu. The Congress leader said while the MLA had already clarified that he was not against the slogan, this was an unnecessary controversy.
“The term Jai Hind basically belongs to Tamils. It was Chempakaraman Pillai who coined the term and then Behari Bose took it to Bihar and those parts of India. Netaji [Subash Chandra Bose] used it widely and Gandhiji, in fact, used the term while sending a piece of silk to the Queen,” Mr. Selvaperunthagai said.
He said he would give a letter to the Speaker requesting him to remove the portion of the MLA’s speech from the Assembly records.
