Kamal Haasan: Jallikattu is a symbol of a much larger discontent
Actor Kamal Haasan has equated the Jallikattu protests in Tamil Nadu to the anti-Hindi agitations of the 1960s, and criticised the govt and the police for Monday's violence
Chennai: Actor Kamal Haasan on Tuesday equated the Jallikattu protests in Tamil Nadu to the anti-Hindi agitations of the 1960s, and criticised the government and the police for Monday’s violence.
The anti-Hindi protests were not about the language, said the actor, who had joined that agitation. “It was against the thrusting of language on us and making us illiterates overnight. That agitation was the beginning of a rumbling volcano."
“This movement is not just about Jallikattu. It is a symbol of a much larger discontent," he told reporters.
Kamal, who pointed to decades of accumulated anger, said it is not a leaderless movement. “Look at the cohesion of it," he said.
Kamal also expressed shock at the way the crowd was handled. A video surfaced on Monday that showed a man in khaki setting fire to an auto-rickshaw in Chennai. Kamal who had shared the same on Twitter said he hoped they were not policemen.
The government had failed to engage with the protesters at Marina beach and chief minister O. Panneerselvam should have gone to meet them, he said.
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“I can almost imagine a scenario where MGR would have gone to the beach and would have joined the protesters," he said.
The 62-year-old actor from Chennai has often been critical of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government. In December 2015, during the floods in Chennai and other districts, Kamal had expressed displeasure over the delayed response by the government and had said, “the entire system has collapsed."
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The actor has had a strained relation with the late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s government ever since it opposed the release of his film Vishwaroopam. After much debate, it was released in February 2013, a month after its worldwide release.
His tweet “Deepest condolences for all those concerned," on Jayalalithaa’s death too did not go down well with the late leader’s supporters.
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