Kamal Haasan tweets on corruption; TN govt warns it will take him to court

Furious at his pot shots, the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu has accused Kamal Haasan of being a publicity hog.

The Tamil Nadu government on Monday threatened legal action against superstar Kamal Haasan after the actor’s tweet cast aspersions on its functioning and also tried to highlight corruption.

Tamil actor Kamal Haasan at a press conference to announce the launch of an app in Chennai on November 7.(PTI)

“It is a crime if the government is involved in looting. It is also a crime if it is not proved after detection. Criminals should not rule the country. The people and the government elected by them should act. The people should be the umpire. Let us all wake up and arise,” the actor tweeted on Sunday.

Haasan’s latest tweet infuriated the government which has threatened legal action against him if the actor continued with his “baseless corruption allegations.” State fisheries minister D Jayakumar said Kamal Haasan is seeking cheap publicity and this was unacceptable.

“The state government will take legal action against the actor if he continues leveling baseless charges against the government,” Jayakumar told reporters.

The minister said if Kamal Haasan was serious he could make a formal complaint against corruption.

The BJP too lashed out at the actor with its state unit chief Tamilisai Soundarrajan criticising the actor for making wild allegations. “I cannot be commenting on each and every tweet of his,” she told reporters.

Though Kamal Haasan did not make any reference to the recent raids by the Income tax department on the Mannargudi clan, his tweets allude to inaction by government after detection of huge sums of unaccounted money in these raids.

Chief minister Edapaddi Palaniswami had declared that neither he nor his government had anything to do with the IT raids on Sasikala’s clan or on the residence of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

IT sources said a sum of Rs 1430 crore of unaccounted money was seized in raids on relatives, friends and business associates of jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala.