In his weekly column in a Tamil magazine, the actor said that the Dravidian identity does not restrict itself to Tamil Nadu alone and it should be expanded to cover all the southern states to get a better deal from the Centre.
In contrast to superstar Rajinikanth's spiritual politics, his reel and soon to be political rival Kamal Haasan has come out with his brand of politics largely hinting at the Dravidian style.
In his weekly column in a Tamil magazine, the actor said that the Dravidian identity does not restrict itself to Tamil Nadu alone and it should be expanded to cover all the southern states to get a better deal from the Centre.
"The Dravidian identity is not limited to Tamil Nadu alone. It is pan-Indian. There is historical, anthropological and archaeological evidence to prove it," Haasan said a day after he announced his plan to launch his party on February 21. He also revealed he will begin his statewide tour from former President APJ Abdul Kalam's residence in Rameshwaram.
In an apparent reference the North-South divide, Haasan was attacking the Centre over the meagre disbursement of tax collections to Tamil Nadu which is the second largest tax contributor in the country. "Of late I have a feeling sharing of taxes with states is not done well," he said pointing to the general perception that the tax collected from here (Tamil Nadu) used for the development of the Northern states. Equating the tax collection and disbursement to a joint family, he warned that the younger ones (Northern states) should not take the elder sibling (Tamil Nadu) for a fool and leave him hungry.
"If the Dravidian movement was celebrated across South India, all such discrimination (of the centre) will disappear. Our unified voice will become a loud chorus that will be heard in Delhi," he said declaring all the chief ministers of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as Dravidians. "There is no need to claim that only Tamilians are Dravidians. Let us happily share the identity with other language speaking people. If such a thing happens, it will only add strength to us," he said.
Political commentators feel that Haasan's decision to stick to Dravidian politics was to make use of the political vacuum created by the demise of AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa and also differentiate himself from Rajinikanth's politics. The Dravidian parties - AIADMK and DMK are dominating the political scene in Tamil Nadu ever since the ouster of Congress government in 1967 state polls.
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