Hindutva forces have started employing terrorism, laments actor Kamal Haasan

News Network

November 2, 2017

Chennai, Nov 2: Right wing Hindus (Hindutva forces) have started employing terrorism to propagate their communal agenda, according to veteran actor Kamal Haasan.

In his column in a Tamil magazine that hit stands on Thursday, the versatile actor said the right-wingers could no longer say "show me a Hindu terrorist if you can." Terrorism has spread into their fold also, he said.

“Earlier, the right-wing Hindus employed debates, and not force, against people of other religions. Having realised that their attempts are failing, they have started using violence,” he wrote.

"This is not a victory or a sign of progress. If we start believing that force will prevail and not truth, then we will all turn into violent beasts," he wrote.

In his column, Kamal was replying to a question posed by Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan who had sought the actor's opinion on "the attempt by Hindutva forces to infiltrate into Tamil Nadu."

Kamal wrote: "Only change is permanent. No matter how many forces push it back, Tamil Nadu will once again prevail as the forerunner in social reforms. Kerala is standing as an example today. Congrats for that."

Kamal pointed out that Tamil Nadu's Dravidian tradition is thousands of years old and said the social revolution brought on by Ramanujam 1,000 years ago is a landmark.

Kamal wrote, "There is no possibility that the attempt by fascists to shift the world towards the right will succeed. The shift towards the right is only a temporary fashion, a cosmetic change. It will not last. The backward old generation, particularly those belonging to the upper castes, which is rattled by the equality evolving in society, is trying to feed their caste-driven, backward ideology to the young generation by sugar coating it and presenting it as a modern idea."

Stating that the affinity that human race has towards science and wisdom will draw them towards rationalism despite opposition, Kamal said, "The youth in the state are not waiting for the change to happen. They have stepped into the fray to protect Tamil Nadu."

According to him, the conservatives are not stressing on what needs to be learned from the past tradition. "Destroying agriculture for commercial gains and selling mythology as history are evils they have been tirelessly carrying forward for ages," he wrote.

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Voting underway in Karnataka bypolls: Family legacies and political heavyweights battle across 3 segments

News Network

November 13,2024

Bengaluru: An estimated overall 10.14 per cent voter turnout was recorded during the first two hours, since the voting began for bypolls to three Assembly segments in Karnataka on Wednesday, election officials said.

The voting began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm.

More than seven lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes in about 770 polling stations in Shiggaon, Sandur and Channapatna, where a total of 45 candidates are in the fray.

While Channapatna recorded 10.34 per cent voter turnout till 9 am, it was 10.08 per cent in Shiggaon, and 9.99 per cent in Sandur, election officials said.

Voters, including women and elderly were seen queuing up in front of polling booths in these segments.

By-polls for Sandur, Shiggaon, and Channapatna are necessitated, as the seats fell vacant following the election of their respective representatives -- E Tukaram of Congress, former CM Basavaraj Bommai of BJP, and Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy of JD(S) -- to Lok Sabha in May elections.

As many as 31 candidates are in the fray from Channapatna, while Sandur and Shiggaon have six and eight contenders, respectively.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made in the three segments for the smooth conduct of the polls.

The by-polls will witness a straight fight between the ruling Congress and BJP in Sandur and Shiggaon segments, while in Channapatna, JD(S) which is part of the NDA alliance is in contest against the grand old party.

Among the three segments, Channapatna is considered to be a "high profile", where the contest is between C P Yogeeshwara, a five time MLA from the segment and former Minister, who joined the Congress quitting BJP ahead of nomination, and actor-turned -politician Nikhil Kumaraswamy, who is Kumaraswamy’s son and former PM H D Deve Gowda's grandson.

BJP's Bharath Bommai, son of Basavaraj Bommai, is fighting Congress Yasir Ahmed Khan Pathan, who had faced defeat against the former Chief Minister in the 2023 Assembly polls, in Shiggaon.

Bharath Bommai and his father cast their vote at a polling booth in Shiggaon segment.

In Sandur, Bellary MP Tukaram's wife E Annapurna of Congress is contesting from the seat vacated by her husband, against, BJP ST Morcha president Bangaru Hanumanthu, who is considered close to party leader and former mining barron G Janardhan Reddy.

Annapurna, Tukaram and other family members cast their votes at a booth in the segment.

With Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Bharath Bommai contesting, the third generation of Gowda and Bommai families are in the fray in this by-poll. Both their fathers and grandfathers have served as Karnataka's Chief Ministers in the past.

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