Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi on Saturday asked college students at an event in Madurai to chant “Jai Shri Ram”, after which the state’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam accused him of violating secular values, The Indian Express reported.

A video of him urging students to chant the slogan as a way to honour Tamil poet Kambar, who wrote the Kamba Ramayanam, was widely circulated online on Sunday. In the video, he was heard saying: “This gives us the confidence that our roots are strong. It is there and we need to build on it. We take this as a movement.”

Urging students to pay tribute to the poet Kambar, Ravi said: “You chant after me, Jai Shri Ram.” The students then chanted the slogan with him thrice.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam alleged that Ravi was acting as a spokesperson for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, India Today reported.

“This goes against the secular values of the country,” party spokesperson Dharanidharan said. “Why does the Governor time and again want to violate the Constitution? Why has he not resigned yet? He is an RSS spokesperson. We know how he violated the federal tenets of the Country and how Supreme Court has shown him his place.”

The DMK spokesperson was referring to a Supreme Court judgement from April 8 which held as illegal Ravi’s decision to withhold assent to 10 bills, some of which were pending since January 2020, and refer them to the president after they were re-enacted by the Assembly.

Congress MLA JMH Aassan Maulana also accused Ravi of acting as a “propaganda master” of the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party, ANI reported.

“He is in one of the highest posts in this country, and he is speaking like a religious leader, which is bringing trouble to this nation,” Maulana said on Sunday. “India has diverse religions, diverse languages and diverse communities, and the Governor keeps telling children to chant Jai Shri Ram. It is promoting inequality.”