Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Wednesday made it clear that his government would continue to use the term “Union government” to refer the federal government, recalling that the DMK, in its election manifesto in 1957 itself, had used the term “Indian Union”.
The Constitution, too, described India as a “union of States”, Stalin adds.
Stalin and the DMK had started using the term “Union government” instead of “Central government” since it took over the reins of the new government in Tamil Nadu.
CM was speaking in the Assembly and responding to BJP leader Nainar Nagendran, who wondered whether there was any motive behind using the word “union.”
“We have used it and will continue to use it,” he said in the Assembly.
“We are using only what is in the Constitution,” he said, recalling the phrase, “India, that is Bharat, shall be a union of States.”
Meanwhile, BJP Tamil Nadu president L. Murugan on Wednesday claimed that CM Stalin referring to the Narendra Modi government as “Union government” was an insult to Dr. Ambedkar as the Indian Constitution does not have any such reference.
“There is a question as to where the Central government is called a Union government. There is a reference as the Central government, Union of India, Union of States in the Constitution, but nothing as Union government,” he told reporters.
