Hours before starting his election campaign, actor and politician Kamal Haasan on Sunday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain why a new Parliament is being built when people are starving after losing their livelihood due to the crisis of the Covid-19.
“Thousands of people died during the construction of the Great Wall of China and the rulers said it was to protect the people. When half of India is starving after losing their livelihood to the crown, who will the 1000 crore building of parliament protect? Please respond, my Honorable Prime Minister-elect, ”Haasan’s tweet read in Tamil.
Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone for a new House of Parliament on Thursday, described the event as a milestone in India’s democratic history, and stated that the building will become the symbol of a 21st century nation and Aatmanirbhar Bharat, or self-sufficient India.
The 64,500 square meter building, the masterpiece of the Rs 20,000 crore Central View project, is proposed to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 971 crore. The earthquake-resistant structure would involve 2,000 workers directly and another 9,000 indirectly.
Haasan’s party, Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), will launch its first phase of the election campaign on Sunday for the upcoming 2021 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. So far his voting plan has been to fight corruption. The MNM campaign will cover the districts of Madurai, Theni, Dindigul, Virudhunagar. Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari.
Members of MNM were recently in the capital to support protesting farmers who want the three new farm laws to be repealed. Haasan, who launched the MNM in 2018 in Madurai, struggled in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and garnered a 3.7% vote share.
The party hopes to improve its performance in the assembly elections where it has positioned itself as a third force. The fledgling party will fight Dravidian rivals, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), and their national partners, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, respectively. Haasan’s former co-star and friend Rajinikanth will also launch his political party to contest the assembly’s 234 constituencies.
Several former bureaucrats and social activists have joined Haasan’s party. Earlier this month, former IAS officer Santhosh Babu, who left the service in August, was appointed the party’s general secretary. Haasan is also the host of Big Boss Tamil-4, a platform he often uses to convey his political thinking to the audience.
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