Why Kamal Haasan's presence at Bharat Jodo will do more harm to Congress than any good

New Delhi, Dec 27: Kamal Haasan joined the Bharat Jodo yatra led by Rahul Gandhi at the Red Fort in Delhi recently. Although his party Makkal Needhi Maiam is not an ally of the grand old party, the veteran-actor-turned-politician took part in the yatra claiming that his father was a Congressman.

"Many people ask me why I'm here. I'm here as an Indian. My father was a Congressman. I had various ideologies and started my own political party but when it comes to the country, all political party lines have to blur. I blurred that line and came here as Kamal Hassan, son of India," he was quoted as saying at the yatra.

Will it Benefit Congress?
The presence of Kamal Haasan, who had created controversies through anti-Hindu sentiments, will not make much of a difference to Congress and in fact, it might backfire. The Tamil actor is not a mass star like Rajinikanth and does not have much influence among voters. It was evident at last year assembly elections.

Not only Kamal Haasan lost, but also his party could not win a single seat. It secured 2.8 per cent votes, which was 1.1 per cent lesser than what it had garnered in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Even in the panchayat elections held later in 2021, the party failed to open an account.

Although these factors will not affect Congress in any way, Kamal's support to Rahul Gandhi makes the BJP's narrative as Congress as an anti-Hindu party stronger. That is because Kamal, in his long illustrated career, has courted several controversies with his anti-Hindu remarks.

In a reference to Nathuram Godse, killer of MK Gandhi, Kamal Haasan had once said that the first terrorist in independent India was a Hindu. "I am not saying this because this is a Muslim-dominated area, but I am saying this before a statue of Gandhi. Free India's first extremist was a Hindu, his name is Nathuram Godse. There it (extremism, apparently) starts," he said during an election rally in 2019.

In the same year, Haasan batted for a plebiscite in Kashmir and questioned the government as to what they are "afraid of". At an event, the Makkal Needhi Maiam leader Haasan said, "Why India is not holding a plebiscite in Kashmir? What are they (government) afraid of?"

Referring to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) as 'Azad Kashmir', he said, "In Azad Kashmir, they are using Jihadis' pictures in trains to portray them as heroes. That is a foolish thing to do. India too behaves with an equal amount of foolishness, it is not a correct thing to do. If we want to prove that India is a far better country then we should not behave like this. That is where politics begins, a new political culture begins," he said. Talking at length about Kashmir and problems plaguing in the region, Haasan said that if India and Pakistan "behave well", the Line of Control (LoC) will be under check.

On being asked about the ghastly Pulwama terror attack on CRPF convoy in which nearly 40 jawans lost their lives on February 14, the leader said: "When I was running a magazine called 'Maiyam', I wrote on the Kashmir issue and what is expected. Hold plebiscite and make people talk...why have they not conducted it? What are they scared of? They want to divide the nation, that's all. Why don't you ask them again? They won't do it?"

In 2017, Kamal Haasan had claimed that India was a nation that honours a book (The Mahabharata), which is centred around the theme of gambling away a woman as if she were an object.

These are some of the examples where he has proved that he is anti-Hindu and his comment on Kashmir has earned him an anti-Indian tag. With the Congress already struggling to do away with the anti-Hindu and anti-national tags, Haasan's presence at Bharat Jodo Yatra is more harmful than good for the grand old party.