Puducherry, June 29(BPNS)
Puducherry Lt Governor, Tamilisai Soundarrajan’s office has denied that the Tamil term for ‘Union Government’ was used during the swearing of the council of ministers in the N Rangasawmi government on Sunday.
The Lt Governor’s office clarified that she has not used the term ‘Ondriya Araasu’( Union Government) while administering the oath of office to the council of ministers in the Puducherry cabinet. This was revealed by a clarification issued from the Raj Nivas on Tuesday.
The term ‘Ondriya Arasu’ has courted controversy after the DMK government of Tamil Nadu used it instead of ‘Mathiya Arasu’( Central Government) to refer to the central government. The BJP Tamil Nadu unit is in a campaign against the DMK government using the term, ‘Ondriya Arasu’ instead of ‘Mathiya Arasu’.
The Raj Nivas in a statement said that the oath of office was administered in Tamil without any change in the pledge traditionally used by the government of Puducherry for many years.
The Lt Governor’s office also clarified that as ministers took oath in Tamil and it was mentioned as ‘India Ontriya Puducherry Atchiparappu’.( Indian Union Territory of Puducherry), with ‘Ontriya’ being used to mention the Union Territory of Puducherry. It may be noted that Puducherry is called Indian Union Territory as it was under the French rule which later merged with the Indian Union.
Trolls had come out in social media against the Puducherry Lt Governor after the s swearing-in on Sunday and hence the clarification from the Raj Nivas.
