Raj Nivas should have ignored ‘Union’ versus ‘Centre’ debate, says former MP Ramadass

According to him, the term “Union”, in the context of oath taking, necessarily pertains only to Indian Union and not to Puducherry Union Territory.

Former Member of Parliament M. Ramadass has said that the office of the Lt. Governor should have desisted from wading into the “unfounded, mischievous and trivial” controversy over the term “Ondriya Arasu” (Union government) and said that the subsequent clarification from Raj Nivas only served to confound matters. The term had recently kicked off a debate over the connotation of the term from the perspective of Centre-State relations and principles of federalism after the BJP in Tamil Nadu found Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s preferred reference to the Centre as “Ondriya Arasu” and not “Madhiya Arasu” (Central government), objectionable and politically loaded. The use of the term “Union” by Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan while administering the oath of office and secrecy to the Council of Ministers of the NDA government on June 27 set off another round of heated chatter on social media.