Superstar Kamal Haasan announced the name of his new political party, Makkal Needhi Maiam at a massive function in Madurai, seen as Tamil Nadu’s political capital, where he shared the stage with Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, who was the chief guest for the evening.
KAMAL HASSAN AND SECULARISM
A day after the annunciation, Kamal’s regular column in Tamil magazine Vikatan comes with an account of the meetings he had with political leaders along with his take on secularism.
Kamal said: “People say I dishonor the color saffron. That is wrong. There is space for that sacrifice (saffron indicates sacrifice in the national flag) even in our national flag. I only feel that it should not spread across the entire flag. We should give the space and respect for the others as well. That is the pledge we’ve taken. The constitution too mentions that.”
“There is a video doing the rounds on Youtube which has people taking the pledge to remove the word “secular” from politics. How did things change like that in just half a century? Can we do such a sacrifice to harvest votes? I want to change that politics (the one that doesn’t care about bloodshed and loss of life),” he further wrote.
“You can call me your leader due to affection. But I will be the servant who does what’s required of the people. “Do not make me your PM but instead your chowkidar (gatekeeper),” said Modi. Today many say that. But I think there should be no leader. Why leadership? Isn’t it enough to just be like a CEO?” he asked.
READ ALSO: Kamal Haasan reveals political flag and symbol; calls for unity
HOW SIMILAR OR DIFFERENT IS AAP AND MNM?
There are several similarities but one crucial difference between actor Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam and Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party. Haasan, like AAP, has positioned himself as a political outsider whose principal plank is to root out corruption without pursuing the politics of identity or by deploying muscle and money power. He believes, as Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal once did before his electoral debut, that he can ride the popular disgust with the existing political class to come to power, assisted in his mission by a team having little experience of electoral politics.
The crucial difference is that AAP, unlike Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam, emerged out of a movement against corruption. The media’s extensive coverage of the movement had a multiplier effect and turned its leaders, until then unknown, into household names. Their popularity was largely because of the ideas they represented.
READ ALSO: Neta Kamal Haasan started politics in style: MNM party launched
As a famous film personality, Haasan doesn’t require an introduction to Tamil Nadu. Yet he is not in the mold of chief ministers MG Ramachandran, J Jayalalithaa and K Kaurnanidhi, all of whom, like Haasan, were associated with the film industry. But unlike him, the trio were also members of a political formation before their ascent to power.
Haasan wil, therefore, need the media to disseminate his political ideas. This is more so as he embarks on a tour of the state, as he wrote in a letter released last month, to understand “what the needs of my people are?, what is afflicting them?, what their aspirations are?”
In other words, Haasan’s political party will now become a vehicle for a movement, a trajectory opposite to what AAP took. The Makkal Needhi Maiam is designed to be a movement against corruption, not only evident from Haasan’s remark at the launch of the party, but also from his audacious sallies in the past few months.
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