CHENNAI: State fisheries minister and senior AIADMK leader D. Jayakumar taunted actor-politician Kamal Haasan who launched his political party on Wednesday, saying the actor is a “genetically modified seed, which is not sowed in these parts.” Kamal's formal entry into politics and also his rejoinder to DMK working president M. K. Stalin, that he “is not a flower but a seed,” seemed to have prompted Mr. Jayakumar to indulge in jousting. Mocking at the actor, the Minister said on the actor's reaction to the paper flower jibe that he is a "seed set to grow and not a flower to wither, Mr. Jayakumar said “the seed (an apparent reference to Haasan) is genetically modified which is not useful for anyone and which is not used in India.”
“He does not have the maturity of a leader. Is school a place to do politics?” Mr. Jayakumar asked referring to the effort of the actor in visiting the school at Rameswaram where late President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam studied. Since authorities had not granted permission, Kamal had to defer his visit. “Will anyone go to school as early as 7.30 am?” the minister asked. The sequence of events in this repartee commenced on Tuesday afternoon, when Mr. Stalin took a dig at Kamal saying “attractive flowers bloom when there's a change in the season and eventually they wither away. Similarly, in the Tamil political arena attractive paper flowers may bloom. But they are not fragrant, are they?”
