Thoothukudi: Makkal Needhii Maiyam (MNM) founder-president, Kamal Haasan, basing his campaign for his party candidate in the Thoothukudi Lok Sabha constituency and Vilathikulam assembly segment, on the police firing that claimed 13 lives, regretted that had people like him come to politics earlier Thoothukudi tragedy would not have happened.
Making the members of the victims of the May 22 police firing line up on the stage in Thoothukudi, Kamal Haasan said that the electorates of Thoothukudi should not forget the families of the victims of the anti-sterlite struggle while exercising their franchise on April 18.
Remembering his first visit to Thoothukudi to extend his support to the anti-sterlite movement taken up by the Kumarediyapuram people before the tragic incident of police firing, Kamal Haasan said that the people’s struggle in Thoothukudi was one of the incidents that triggered him plunge seriously into politics.
“I have been falsely branded as a leftist, who despise industrialisation. I am for industrialisation especially in the southern districts of Thoothukudi, Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and my native district Ramanathapuram, but want environment-friendly industries to ensure jobs for the people,” clarified Kamal Hasan, who too suggested that industries like Sterlite should be established in places which are not heavily populated.
Kamal Haasan begging people’s pardon for coming late to politics, regretted, “had people like me come into politics 20 years earlier incidents like the Thoothukudi tragedy would not have occurred.”
Kamal Haasan also made Vanitha, the mother of Snolin, the 18-year-old girl killed in the police firing, pour out her grievances on stage. Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that Nagpur (RSS) controls the central government, Kamal Haasan, alluding to BJP but without naming it said, “an evil force has sneaked into Tamil Nadu and the mission to get rid of that evil force should begin from Thoothukudi.”
