Revenue Minister RB Udhaya Kumar said that actor Kamal Haasan was mentally ill (File)
Chennai:
Stung by darts hurled by the award winning actor-director Kamal Haasan at Tamil Nadu's ruling party, a senior minister in the E Palaniswami government has hit back. Revenue Minister RB Udhaya Kumar said the acclaimed actor was mentally ill. "That's our conclusion," the minister said, his retort to barbs from Mr Haasan accusing the government of doing little to curb crime and corruption.
In a politically-loaded Independence Day message, the actor had also questioned why there were no demands for the resignation of Chief Minister E Palaniswami despite accusations of corruption in his government. In comparison, Mr Haasan had pointed how the opposition wanted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to quit after the death of children in eastern Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur hospital.
"I think he wants to say something to the people but doesn't know how to say. May be he is having some mental disorder. That's our conclusion, he's got some mental disorder," Mr Kumar told NDTV, asserting that the AIADMK cadre rejected Mr Haasan's statement.
Mr Haasan had last month run into trouble with the AIADMK after he said everyone had to face corruption in Tamil Nadu. When one minister threatened him with cases for what he insisted was a misleading statement, the actor asked his fans to flood the ministers with emails exposing their experiences of corruption and dared the government to arrest everyone.
In his recent tweets, Mr Haasan had called political parties such as Tamil Nadu's two bitter political rivals, the DMK and AIADMK, "tools to help" achieve his objective of a better Tamil Nadu. "If those tools are blunt, find others," he said, in remarks seen to signal that he had no favourites and the state's welfare was all that was driving him.
Mr Haasan's presence with DMK's working president MK Stalin on the stage at an event to mark 75 years of the opposition party's mouthpiece had triggered speculation that he could join the DMK. Also present among the audience, was superstar Rajinikanth.
In a politically-loaded Independence Day message, the actor had also questioned why there were no demands for the resignation of Chief Minister E Palaniswami despite accusations of corruption in his government. In comparison, Mr Haasan had pointed how the opposition wanted Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to quit after the death of children in eastern Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur hospital.
"I think he wants to say something to the people but doesn't know how to say. May be he is having some mental disorder. That's our conclusion, he's got some mental disorder," Mr Kumar told NDTV, asserting that the AIADMK cadre rejected Mr Haasan's statement.
Mr Haasan had last month run into trouble with the AIADMK after he said everyone had to face corruption in Tamil Nadu. When one minister threatened him with cases for what he insisted was a misleading statement, the actor asked his fans to flood the ministers with emails exposing their experiences of corruption and dared the government to arrest everyone.
In his recent tweets, Mr Haasan had called political parties such as Tamil Nadu's two bitter political rivals, the DMK and AIADMK, "tools to help" achieve his objective of a better Tamil Nadu. "If those tools are blunt, find others," he said, in remarks seen to signal that he had no favourites and the state's welfare was all that was driving him.
Mr Haasan's presence with DMK's working president MK Stalin on the stage at an event to mark 75 years of the opposition party's mouthpiece had triggered speculation that he could join the DMK. Also present among the audience, was superstar Rajinikanth.
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