It was a day of veiled digs and mockery between actor-politician Kamal Haasan and DMK leader M.K. Stalin. Speaking at an event in Chennai, on Sunday, Haasan took a dig at the DMK president. He accused the party of copying his way of reaching out to people. Emphasising on the ‘grama sabha’ meetings that he conducted, he said they lifted his ooratchi sabhai campaign. "The grama sabha meetings have been going on for 25 years. Didn’t anyone know about this? What were you [DMK] doing? Now, a small boy [a reference to himself] is saying this and you are copying it. Aren’t you ashamed?” he asked.
Further, taking a veiled dig at Stalin, he mocked the latter’s gesture in the legislative assembly when Edappadi K. Palanisami won the vote of confidence in February 2017. “I can’t stand with a torn shirt on the street. In the Assembly, I won’t do that. If the shirt is torn, I won’t come out with it, but will change my shirt,” he said. In 2017, Stalin turned up in the public with an unbuttoned shirt after he was evicted from the Assembly following chaos and commotion during the vote of confidence.
Asked for a reply, Stalin, who was in Puducherry to express his support to Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy in his dharna against the Union territory’s Lt Governor Kiran Bedi, he said, “We are discussing politics.” It was a sarcastic repartee to Kamal Haasan.
However, DMK seniors and cadre took to social media to mount offensive against Kamal Hassan. Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin tweeted a few old pictures of Stalin’s grama sabha meetings in 2000. He said, “These pictures are dedicated to Kalaignani Kamal Haasan who is blabbering without knowledge, saying that only he organised grama sabha meetings.”
