A day after Kamal Haasan wrote a scathing article in Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan on the RK Nagar bye-polls, a petition has been filed against the actor in the Coimbatore second criminal court.
The petition, filed on behalf of RK Nagar MLA TTV Dhinakaran’s supporters, accuses Kamal of defaming TTV Dhinakaran as well as the voters of RK Nagar. Kamal’s article was titled ‘A storm brewing inside me’.
The petition has been filed under Sections 500 (defamation) and 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory) of the IPC. Filed by TTV Dhinakaran supporter Ilangovan, it will be taken up by the court on January 12.
Speaking to TNM, the petitioner and TTV Dhinakaran supporter Ilagovan said, "How can he abuse an MLA who has won the votes of 90,00 people? How can he call the people beggars?" When asked if TTV knew about the case being filed, he said he had done it individually. He demands that Kamal apologize for his statement. He says, "In his next article, he should apologize. If he apologises, I am willing to take back the case. Nothing wrong in that."
In his article, Kamal equated taking cash for votes to begging from a thief. Calling both the ruling party and TTV Dhinakaran as "thieves", he asks, “Is there anything more deplorable than asking for alms from a thief?”
Calling cash for votes “as deplorable as begging”, Kamal wrote, “The RK Nagar bye-elections are a colossal taint. It is a colossal taint on Tamil Nadu, Tamil politics and why, even Indian democracy.”
Accusing the people of being complicit by selling their votes, he added, “It is deeply saddening that the people were complicit in a crime that took place so transparently.”
However, he added that people’s poverty was at play here. He wrote, “Your poverty is pushing you to forget your humanity. To abolish your poverty, your honest vote is the only weapon. If you need this weapon, you need to refrain from instant pleasures like the tokens you got.”
Reminding the people of their “humanity”, he wrote, “You who have shown what open hearts can do during the Chennai floods are the ones who have been sold out to the Rs 20 tokens.”
Ground reports and sting operations during the RK Nagar bye-polls had shown that as much as Rs 20,000 was being offered per vote.