Centre's focus on farmers: Kamal Haasan

CHENNAI: Actor-activist  Kamal Haasan on Friday said it was a “bit soothing” to see Centre’s attention turning “slightly” towards farmers and the rural India through the announcements directed towards them in the Union Budget presented in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Refraining from commenting “too much” on the budget, Kamal said he would come out with a detailed response on budget presented by Union finance minister Arun Jaitley after consulting “experts and financial gurus.”

In a brief interaction with reporters at the airport here before he boarded a flight to the United States via Gulf, Kamal said the Union Budget also showed the Centre’s “indifference” towards the middle class since no benefits have been given to them.

“As far I understand, their (Centre’s) attention has slightly turned towards farmers and rural areas. This is a bit soothing,” he told reporters when they sought his response to the budgetary announcements made by Jaitley.

To a question on suggestions that Tamil Nadu has been ignored in the budget, Kamal said there was nothing new. “Tamil Nadu is being ignored for the past several years,” the actor said.

“As far as the middle class is concerned, they (government) seem to have been indifferent,” he added. Kamal, who will speak on Tamil Nadu at the ‘India Conference’ of the prestigious Harvard University in the US on February 10, also accused the Tamil Nadu Government of being “ignorant” to the problems being faced by transport employees.

“It shows the capitalist mindset of those in power,” the actor said, when asked to comment on Tamil Nadu government deducting seven-day wages from the transport department employees who protested against it.

Kamal has been invited by Harvard to give keynote address at the ‘India Conference’ on February 10—the second time he would be delivering a lecture at the university after his talk on freedom of speech in 2016.