'Governor must stop misusing' constitutional office: Cong MP on Ravi for skipping Assembly address
New Delhi (PTI): With Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi walking out of the Assembly without delivering his customary address to the House, Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Tuesday said the state will not accept the erosion of its democratic institutions and the governor must stop "misusing" a constitutional office.
Tamil Nadu Governor Ravi walked out of the state Assembly without delivering his customary address to the House in its maiden session of the year, alleging, among others, "inaccuracies" in the DMK government's prepared text.
Chief Minister M K Stalin slammed the governor for "walking out in violation of tradition and ethos," and later piloted a resolution saying the English version of the address was assumed to have been read.
Reacting to the development, Congress MP Tagore said, "Why does Governor Ravi repeatedly refuse to follow the Constitution of India? Once again, he has acted in a manner that undermines and insults the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly -- a democratically elected body of the people."
The Constitution is clear that the governor is a constitutional head, not a parallel authority, he said in a social media post in Tamil.
"He (the governor) must act on the aid and advice of the elected state government (Article 163). Reading out personal opinions, selectively altering the Assembly address, or withholding assent indefinitely is not constitutional discretion - it is constitutional defiance," Tagore said.
Noting that the Tamil Nadu Assembly represents millions of people, the Congress leader said, "disrespecting the House is not disrespecting a party - it is disrespecting democracy and federalism".
"Supreme Court judgments (SR Bommai, Nabam Rebia) are clear: Governors must act with neutrality, restraint, and constitutional morality - not as political agents of the Centre," he said.
Tamil Nadu will not accept the erosion of its democratic institutions, Tagore asserted.
"The governor must either uphold the Constitution or stop misusing a constitutional office to create confrontation," he said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
