Legislators should be brought under ‘no work no pay’: Kamal Haasan

Chennai, September 15

Veteran actor Kamal Haasan on Friday took potshots at elected representatives, saying they should also be covered under the “no work no pay” formula.

The actor’s comments came in the wake of a section of government employees and teachers striking work, with the Madras High Court pulling up the teachers for doing so.

“No work no pay only for Govt Employees? How about horse trading politicians languishing in resorts?” the actor said in a tweet without naming anyone.

The ‘resort’ remark was apparently a reference to a section of the ruling AIADMK MLAs owing allegiance to ‘sacked’ leader TTV Dhinakran shifting resorts.

Following the revolt of 19 party MLAs against Chief Minister K Palaniswami, they were all initially accommodated at a resort in Puducherry. They later shifted to a resort in Coorg in Karnataka and are since staying there.

One of them shifted camps to support Palaniswami later.

Incidentally, AIADMK MLAs were earlier lodged at a resort at nearby Kuvathur in February, following a split in the party when then rebel leader O Panneerselvam revolted against party chief VK Sasikala.

The MLAs were accommodated at the resort ahead of the crucial February 18 trust vote of the incumbent Palaniswami government. Panneerselvam had, however, merged his faction with the one led by Palaniswami last month.

In another tweet, Haasan also pleaded with the court to warn legislators “who desist from attending work”. “The honourable court warns teachers on strike. I beseech the court to issue similar warnings to those MLAs who desist from attending work,” he said.

On September 13, the Madras High Court had pulled up a section of Tamil Nadu government teachers who are on strike, saying it affected students.

Haasan has been recently politically active, levying corruption charges against the government.

Palaniswami and some of his cabinet colleagues had hit out at the actor. PTI