Actor says he will seek funding for his party from the poor

Actor Kamal Haasan on Friday said he had already arrived in politics and to ask whether he would enter politics or not was irrelevant.

“You should not have asked the question after listening to me discussing politics on the dais (Yaathum Tamizhe, organised by The Hindu Tamil) since 6 p.m. Have we spared anyone?” he said in response to a question from a reader. He, however, ruled out picking any particular day for launching a political party. “It should be decided without any hurry,” he said. “It should not be on my birthday since it is my birthday. It may coincide with a revolution.”

When a member of the audience asked whether it would be September 17, the actor quipped he would decide the year.

To a question on the ideology of the proposed political party — Gandhian or Marxism — he said in India leaders such as Ram Manohar Lohia had talked about Gandhian Marxism. “Even Periyar had participated in the freedom movement before he developed a difference of opinion and went his own way. I am standing on their shoulders and articulating politics and moving in their direction,” he said.

Asked whether he would include actor Rajinikanth in the party he was planning to launch, he said he used to discuss professional matters with him and it would not be difficult for him to discuss politics. “The only thing is I do not reveal what we discussed,” he said.

By way of responding to those who faulted him for remaining silent so long as Jayalalithaa was alive, he said, “You also remained silent, but you sought to make me a sacrificial goat.” On the funding for his party, he said it would come from the poor. “It is they who fill the coffers emptied by the governments.” In another context, he said: “I am not planning to enter politics to make wealth for my great granddaughter”.