Telugu actor Pawan Kalyan may be yet another south Indian star trying his luck in politics, but he claims that in order to achieve his ‘big’ political ambitions, he has given up his primary vocation — the movies.
The actor, who floated the party Jana Sena in 2014, was in Chennai outlining his vision for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. While he campaigned for the BJP-the Telugu Desam Party alliance in 2014 he has not yet contested in an election either in Telangana or in Andhra Pradesh. However, he firmly believes that there is a need for south Indian political parties to come together to ‘chart a common minimum programme’, while dealing with national parties.
Act as one unit
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Kalyan said he was completely disillusioned with national parties — not just with the Bharatiya Janata Party — for the manner in which they handled the demand of special category status to Andhra Pradesh, post the bifurcation of the State.
“It is not about one party. The southern states should create a common platform for their rights. Today, it is BJP. But what if the Congress does the same thing tomorrow? They imposed Hindi in the 1960s. Southern political parties should understand where they stand on each issue and a common minimum programme should be charted out. They may have internal issues but when it comes to southern interests, it should act as one single unit. You need to have a fundamental framework,” said Mr. Kalyan.
He said the Centre dictating terms to the States was not something that the BJP had invented but that the ‘elite political class in Delhi’ had always behaved that way. “It is not new. Maybe the intensity has increased now. But I vividly remember MGR saying that ‘we have to be cautious while dealing with the Centre’. It was always like that — the elite political class in Delhi does not know anything about south India. When we say down south, it is only geographically ‘down south’. It doesn’t mean you have to look down at the south [laughs]. Do they know about the aspirations of the south? Do they understand its culture?” said Mr. Kalyan, adding, “When I refer to north India, I am only talking about the elite political class and not the average north Indian who is very tolerant and has a good understanding of cultures.”
MGR, an inspiration
He added that the root of his ‘political thought’ was formed during his decade-long stay in Chennai and Tamil Nadu.
“I was inspired by Puratchi Thalaivar MGR. I grew up here. He is a great case study to understand why other actors couldn’t sustain in politics like him,” he said.
“Though Tamil Nadu is politically separate (from Andhra)…for me, Tamil Nadu is part of my personality. And I used to think about why MGR succeeded in politics and why Sivaji Ganesan failed. I also think about the movement started by Periyar and also the LTTE movement…My thought was consolidated in this place,” he added. Mr. Kalyan asked: “How many north Indian leaders today have even travelled around the south? How can you understand the south by just talking to a few parliamentarians?”
He said he wanted to bring people together on a common platform that speaks about social justice.
What does he think about the political journeys undertaken by Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth?
“I don’t want to do films and be in politics. You cannot do justice to both. The problem is, it [politics] needs a lot of time. I hardly get time for myself,” he says.
