Veteran actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief Kamal Haasan. File | Photo Credit: PTI
On Sunday, Kamal participated within the fifteenth anniversary celebrations of Agaram Foundation, Tamil actor Suriya’s charitable organisation that has helped over 6,700 first-generation graduates realise their dream of upper schooling. While talking on the occasion, Kamal praised Suriya’s efforts and urged kids to wield schooling as their weapon.
“Education and love are seldom offered collectively. Mothers offer you that, and establishments just like the Agaram Foundation offer you that. They offer you a crown should you attain higher heights in cinema, however if you wish to attain nice heights to do good for society, all you’ll get is a crown product of thorns. To say ‘It’s okay if that’s the crown I’d be bestowed with’ wants quite a lot of psychological energy. It wants braveness as a result of no one will stand with you,” stated Kamal.
On NEET, Sanatana Dharma
The Thug Life actor then criticised the Union authorities’s National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), the doorway examination for undergraduate and postgraduate medical schooling that has drawn flak, particularly in Tamil Nadu, since its inception in 2017. “The docs you noticed on stage in the present day….I’m not positive if they’ll present one other batch of docs like this at their subsequent occasion. Because they haven’t been capable of proceed such efforts post-2017. Now, do you perceive why we’ve been opposing NEET? Since 2017, this legislation has prevented such youngsters from getting this schooling. Agaram can not do something about it,” stated Kamal, including that solely schooling can grant the facility to alter this case.
“In this warfare, solely schooling has the facility to alter the nation. It’s the one weapon that may break the chains of dictatorship and Sanatana. Do not take some other weapon in your palms. You can’t win with some other weapon. Because you can be defeated by majoritarianism; ignorant majoritarians will defeat you,” added Kamal.
Further, he revealed that he had spoken to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK. Stalin about Suriya’s work and that he urged him to assist such NGOs. “I instructed him, ‘They should not asking for cash, they’re merely asking for permission. How is that going to harm us? Please give them the mandatory permissions’ He stated he has been doing so.”
Kamal’s assertion in opposition to Sanatana Dharma has garnered criticism, particularly from the BJP. Sanatana Dharma, a set of everlasting duties ordained in Hinduism, has been a delicate nerve in politics. Earlier in 2023, Tamil Nadu Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development, Udhayanidhi Stalin’s assertion calling for “the eradication of Sanatana Dharma” triggered a significant political row.
Reacting to his remark, BJP chief Tamilisai Soundararajan, on Monday, accused Kamal of “dividing folks” on spiritual sentiments. “Kamal Haasan is extra grateful to DMK than its personal cadres. If he speaks about Sanatan, Udhayanidhi and Stalin might be blissful. However, Tamil Nadu folks might be sad, and never solely Tamil Nadu, the emotions of all Indians who observe that ideology might be harm,” she instructed the information company ANI.
This isn’t the primary time a press release by Kamal Haasan has created an issue in latest instances.
Earlier in June, the actor was embroiled in an issue throughout the promotions of his movie Thug Lifefor stating that the Kannada language “was born out of Tamil.” The comment, made throughout the audio launch of his upcoming movie Thug Life in Chennai, has drawn fierce backlash in Karnataka, significantly from the BJP and pro-Kannada teams. The controversy even led to a halt within the movie’s launch in Karnataka, a ban that was revoked after the Supreme Court of India asserted filmmakers’ proper to launch licensed movies with out threats of arson or mob intimidation.
Published – August 04, 2025 05:02 pm IST
