“There’s no going back” says Kamal Haasan, “I’m in politics to stay”

Kamal Haasan | Wikipedia
Kamal Haasan today announced the launch of a new app called Mayyam or Whistle, in an attempt to organize people for a political movement, and said there was no question of turning back.

“If I call such a huge press meeting and I say, I am still thinking about it, it would be unfair and wrong,” he said at press conference on his birthday today.

“I am here in politics, and that’s the fact. What we will unveil going forward is what we plan to do exactly,” he said.

He also said his new platform and the app is not aimed at simply creating a party.

The app has not yet been launched, but is being beta tested. A team of 20-25 people are working on the platform, he said.

“It’s more than service or communication. It is about our own good, about reaching our (personal) goal,” he said.

“Mayyam means whistle. It refers to blowing the whistle,” said Kamal Haasan, adding that the idea was to use the platform to call out people who do injustice.

“By January, the platform will be ready for communication and so will the app,” he said.

He was asked whether he will ask his fans to ensure that his party would have followers.

“I will not ask anyone to follow me. I will not ask even request anyone to follow me,” he said. “They should follow me only if they see logic in doing so, and I will make sure that they see logic in doing so,” he said, revealing some of his rationalist tendencies.

He said India has a tradition of seeing history in cycles, right from the Dharma chakra of the Buddha and Ashoka.

“Now, it has become a vicious cycle. We must make it a virtuous cycle,” he added.

Kamal Haasan also said he will undertake a tour of Tamil Nadu to develop his connect with the people of the state.

Separately, Kamal Haasan also said that he had tried to reach out to Rajinikanth before starting on his political path.

“He was the first person I reached out to when I got this idea (of taking things up politically,” he said.

He added that after holding talks with Rajinikanth, he and his fellow actor decided that each will do whatever he can, in his own way.

“We stopped having dual-hero movies long back,” he said at the India Today Conclave earlier in the day, indicating that there was no possibility of a tie-up between Haasan and Rajinikanth.

HINDU TERROR CONTROVERSY

Kamal Haasan also addressed the recent controversy around his reported comments about rising ‘Hindu Terror’.

He said his Tamil article did not use the word ‘terror’, but ‘extremism’. “Like in every religion, there is extremism in Hinduism as well, and that’s what I oppose,” he said.

He said vested interests were trying to make him look anti-Hindu. He also said he was born in a Hindu family, and he understood Hindu sensitivities.

This led to a question about whether he identified himself as a Brahmin, which elicited laughter from Kamal, who has a reputation as an atheist and rationalist.

He said if someone opened his shirt, they would be shocked, referring to the absence of the sacrificial thread. He said he didn’t want to be identified by his caste or community.

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