"You Have No Power...": MK Stalin To Governor On Minister's Dismissal

Mr Stalin said dismissing a minister is the sole prerogative of an elected chief minister.

In a scathing reply to Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi's letters on Minister V Senthil Balaji's dismissal, Chief Minister MK Stalin has said that the letters require "outright disregard" and show that the governor acted in haste with "scant regard to the Constitution". Mr Stalin said the governor has no power to dismiss his ministers and that doing so is the sole prerogative of an elected chief minister.

Starting his letter to the governor today with a polite "vanakkam",  Mr Stalin goes on to accuse him of issuing veiled unsubstantiated threats and points out that the chief minister and his cabinet enjoy the confidence of the people, who are "the ultimate sovereign". 

"I have received your letters dated 29.06.2023 one at 7.00 pm 'said to be dismissing' Thiru V Senthil Balaji from my Cabinet and the other on the same day at 11.45 pm 'keeping in abeyance' the said letter. Though your letters require only an outright disregard, I am writing to you to clarify both the facts and law on the issue on hand," Mr Stalin's letter states. 

Mr Stalin points out that the aid and advice of the chief minister and the cabinet was neither sought nor given for both letters. "The fact that within a few hours after you issued such a strongly worded first letter, even alluding to 'breakdown of constitutional machinery', a not so veiled threat, you withdrew it 'to seek the opinion of the Attorney General'. This shows that you had not even taken a legal opinion before such an important decision," the letter states.