When Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi staged a walkout to protest the resolution that sought to retain the portion of his customary address that he skipped, Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy alone could be seen making a gesture, “get lost”. It was January 2023. Mr. Ponmudy was not in the Assembly when the Governor refused to read his customary address in 2024. He had already been divested of his portfolios after the Madras High Court sentenced him and his wife for three years in jail in a disproportionate assets case.
It looked as if the ongoing tussle between the Tamil Nadu government and the Governor became a personal battle between Mr. Ponmudy and Mr. Ravi. The Governor refused to swear him in even after the Supreme Court stayed the conviction. The Governor reluctantly did it on March 22, only after the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, came down on him for “defying the Supreme Court of India”.
The author of The Dravidian movement and the black movement, an outcome of his doctoral thesis, Mr. Ponmudy, a hardcore follower of Periyar, the founder of the Dravidian Movement, was a student of the Annamalai University, a citadel of the Communist and Dravidian Movement. Mr. Ponmudy was the secretary of the Dravida Manavar Kazhagam in the university.
