Kamal Haasan: Tamil Nadu will launch non-cooperation movement

Tiruchy: Makkal Needhi Maiam leader Kamal Haasan on Wednesday night warned if the Central government did not form Cauvery Management Board (CMB), Tamil Nadu will launch non-cooperation movement in a peaceful manner.  “The Centre should not expect cooperation and there would be peaceful non-cooperation from people if the CMB was not formed,” Kamal said.

The actor, who issued this veiled warning while addressing a mammoth public meeting here, also pointed out that the Central Government has every right to form the CMB. He also pointed out that the MNM is holding discussions with experts from various walks of life, especially water and legal experts and engineers on how to solve the Cauvery water dispute. Tamil Nadu government also knows how to solve the issue, but is hiding behind the Union government, he added. Popular actor and MNM founder-leader Kamal Haasan said that the AIADMK government led by Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami was functioning like a subservient government to the Centre instead of upholding the state’s rights, even though this is the essence of India’s federalism. He was here to address his party’s public meeting on Wednesday where he told newsmen that the main focus of the meeting would be the Cauvery water issue.

He said that they had been hopeful that the judgement of the Supreme Court would be implemented in total and the Central Government would constitute the Cauvery Management Board (Board) within the deadline of six weeks as provided in the order. However, to our dismay, we are now witnessing a repeat of what happened in 2016. It may be recalled that the Supreme Court in its order in September 2016 had directed the Central Government to constitute the CMB as per the verdict of the Cauvery River Water Disputes Tribunal within a period of four weeks from the date of the order. It was not constituted then under the pretext of legal technicalities. We are seeing a repeat of this again now, he added. While the responsibility of constituting the CMB is with the Centre, the Tamil Nadu state government cannot think that it has fulfilled its duty towards the people who elected them by simply filing a contempt petition after the deadline or by holding a farcical one-day hunger strike, he added. He charged the Tamil Nadu Government of being subservient to the Centre instead of upholding the state’s rights, We will also be stating some key policy guidelines of our party on important areas.

This will be a precursor to the overall policy document that we will publish in the next 5 months, he added. Asked to comment on the Supreme Court’s recent remarks that the SC & ST acts are being misused, Kamal Haasan said it cannot be altered now. When a reporter drew to his attention to the fact that his train travel between Chennai and Tiruchy on Tuesday had caused hindrance to other passengers, Kamal Hasan denied it.  In fact, he had wanted to visit  passengers in other compartments, but since this would disturb others, he had given up the idea, he added. Earlier, Kamal Haasan and mediapersons paid homage to the memory of  Tiruchy Dinakaran reporter Narayanan by observing silence for a minute. Narayanan had died this morning after a road accident. Kamal Hasan also met family members of the late Usha, who died due to the forcible action of a police inspector at Tiruverumbur near here recently. He gave Rs 5 lakh to her mother S.Lourdhu Mary and brother Robert and Rs 5 lakh to her husband Raja as promised.