Kamal Haasan compared the proposed Parliament to the Great Wall of China.
Chennai:
Hours before launching his party’s campaign two years ago for the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, Tamil film star-turned-politician Kamal Haasan attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the new parliament bill for which he had laid the first stone recently.
Veteran actor and founder of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) asked on Sunday what the point of such massive financial indulgence was at a time when the country’s economy was facing severe turmoil.
Why a new Rs 1 billion Parliament when half of India is hungry and losing their livelihoods due to the coronavirus? When thousands died while the Great Wall of China was being built, the rulers said it was to protect the people. To protect who is building the Rs 1 billion Parliament? Please reply to my Honorable Prime Minister-elect, “Haasan tweeted on Saturday.
On December 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a groundbreaking ceremony in the heart of Delhi for the new parliament building, which will be the centerpiece of the Rs 20,000 crore project to restore the Central View of the national capital.
Construction of the building, however, cannot begin for now as the Supreme Court is hearing petitions challenging the project. Last week, he accused the government of “aggressively pushing” the project ahead of the higher court’s decision.
The Tamil leader’s attack on the project came hours before the launch of the first phase of his election campaign from Madurai. State elections will be held in May 2021, and Haasan himself is likely to take part this time, making corruption, employment, village development and clean water his key MNM pillars. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the party got nearly 4 percent of the vote.
Prime Minister Modi’s BJP, which is allied with ruling AIADMK, seeks to expand its presence in a state that has remained largely elusive until now. Ahead of next year’s assembly elections, the party has rounded up top leaders like Tamil movie star Khushbu Sundar and has been trying to organize emotional demonstrations like the Vetri Vel Yatra.
Speaking about his own party’s priorities, Haasan said today: “Tamil Nadu is still degenerate. We would fix it. We are launching our campaign in compliance with government regulations.”
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