Kamal Haasan challenges 'status quo' in Tamil Nadu politics; adopts village with aim to make model town

Actor Kamal Haasan who is all set to begin his political journey on February 21 from the house of late President APJ Abdul Kalam in Rameswaram has revealed his plan to adopt a village to convert into a model one with all the infrastructure facilities including better schooling, access to drinking water and transport facilities.

The initiative to adopt a village was part of his effort to challenge the status quo in the Tamil Nadu politics where political parties were not thinking out of the box, Haasan wrote in his weekly column in a Tamil magazine.

Naming his political journey as "Naalai Namadhey” (Tomorrow Is Ours), he said that people were migrating to the cities from the villages in search of better facilities. “They would not migrate if they get what they required there itself. Our intention is to create such a model village,” he said. Naalai Namadhey was the title of late chief minister MG Ramachandran's movie. "If it reminds them about him, so be it... We have given this name as they are good memories," he wrote.

On February 21, Hassan is scheduled to launch his political party in his native Ramanathapuram district and also release his party's guiding principles.

Pointing out that he would be adopting only one village first, he said that he would be addressing Harvard University in this regard. “I am going to invite the talents to our villages. I don’t know how many people will come but we need their help. I hope people will come here. But such interest has disappeared from our politicians. They have frozen to believe to do things in "certain way" like temple rituals based on agama shastras. That’s why I told that I would challenge the status quo.”

Listing out things to be done in the villages, Hassan said modern school education provided in the US and the UK schools should be made available in the villages. "Though the seeds for the moderns schools were planted by late chief minister Kamaraj and the Justice Party, it is our duty to take it next level," he said, adding that they would take steps to provide drinking water, clean surrounding, quality entertainment, reliable transport and protection of water bodies. "We are going to do the things that the government failed to do. There is no point in criticising alone. We will adopt a village first. Based on the field experience, we will go to other villages," he said.

Taking a dig at the free laptop scheme, Hassan said that he would not accept the argument that one would get knowledge by getting a laptop. "One requires certain knowledge to even operate a laptop. It is only an instrument to gain knowledge," he said, adding that people should be taught the art of catching fish as that alone would ensure them a life of self-respect, a reference to job creation. “If things can be changed single handedly by him through his fans welfare association, and if the government which considers it all powerful gets into the act and does better things than me, I will consider my job as done. There is no point tweeting (about issues). I have rained tweets, but what to do they don’t reach them,” Haasan said in an apparent reference to the government.