Kamal Haasan should find a more credible narrative for his political debut
It is perhaps a function of the poverty of contemporary political-electoral discourse that wannabe politician and exceptional filmmaker Kamal Haasan has had to take recourse to a discredited and frankly bogus argument floated by the cynical, on occasion sinister, left-secularist establishment of this country to create equivalence with Islamist terrorism, namely “Hindu terror”. Especially as Haasan — who appears to be a well-read, thinking man apart from being a fine actor — symbolises the hope for the advent of a new kind of politics among his legion of fans as well as neutrals. As he readies for his political debut in Tamil Nadu where issues of governance ought to have been centre-stage given the developments in that State over the past few months, it is perfectly understandable that he wants to try and consolidate those opposed to the faction-ridden AIADMK which is perceived to be backed by the BJP; the thespian has made it clear more than once that he is “definitely not saffron”.
But in his attempt to mark clear blue water between himself and the saffron camp by writing in a Tamil magazine in response to a question posed by his ideological mate and personal friend Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Hindutva forces' efforts to make inroads into Tamil Nadu, that the "right wing (which) in the past used to hold a dialogue with those opposing them… has now started to use muscle power and terrorism has entered their camp", has made quite a few sit up and take note of the narrative he appears to be peddling. His assurance that “Tamil Nadu will once again become an example for social justice… for today, Kerala shows the way”, without explaining in any detail what the phrase means to him, also appears to be a signal to the left establishment that he understands the importance of this codeword for a de facto differential citizenship model. This is not to say the Congress, the BJP, AIADMK, DMK and other mainstream parties in the State do not swear by social justice too as a part of their agenda for inclusion and change. But it is significant that Haasan picked this phrase allied with a eulogy to Kerala of all places where political violence, communal polarisation, militant trade unionism and a money order economy generated cash surplus spent on social sector schemes/sops have combined to keep either the CPI-M or a left-leaning Congress in power for decades.
Worse, Haasan seems intent on validating the tired old binary between an affinity for modern knowledge, rational though, a scientific temper and being stakeholders in the Indic tradition, suggesting incorrectly in his remarks that the two cannot coexist. As a film he too may have seen decades ago asked: What's new, pussycatIJ