Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay issued an apology in the Legislative Assembly on Monday after a cabinet minister referred to former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi directly by name, omitting the customary honorific titles. The slip of the tongue triggered immediate protests from the opposition DMK, whose members condemned the remark as a breach of parliamentary decorum.
Stepping in swiftly to defuse tensions in the House, the 52-year-old actor-politician acknowledged that the manner in which the late leader had been addressed was unacceptable. Vijay offered a formal apology on behalf of Forest Minister R V Ranjith Kumar, who had spoken of Karunanidhi without using long-established protocol designations such as "Kalaignar" or "former Chief Minister".
The confrontation occurred during a debate on grant demands for the Health and Revenue departments. In his address, Ranjith Kumar raised previous instances of vote-buying, citing the controversial "Thirumangalam formula" and asserting that past elections in his Kancheepuram constituency had seen voters offered up to Rs 1,500 each. Seeking to contrast those polls with the current administration, the minister claimed the present government had secured office without distributing money to the electorate.
However, whilst outlining these past campaign tactics, the minister dropped the formal prefix when referring to the DMK patriarch. This departed from the strict convention maintained in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, where senior public figures are consistently addressed with formal titles.
The omission sparked vocal objections from DMK benches, led by former minister KKSSR Ramachandran. As tempers flared, Vijay intervened to halt the minister's speech, admitting that referencing Karunanidhi in such terms was inappropriate. The Chief Minister's prompt intervention calmed the House and allowed proceedings to resume.
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