PM emotionally manipulating people: Kamal Haasan on Ladakh standoff

Actor-turned-politician and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief Kamal Haasan on Sunday (June 21) asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop “emotionally manipulate people” over last week’s violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Galwan Valley.

Referring to Modi’s statement that neither had anyone intruded into India nor were any Indian posts captured, and the PMO clarification over “mischievous” attempts to misinterpret the PM, Haasan said that the questions raised to the PMO cannot be treated as “anti-national”.

Makkal Needhi Maiam Party President Mr. @ikamalhaasan's press release on India – China Border Tensions (English) .#PressRelease #MakkalNeedhiMaiam pic.twitter.com/vZBK0cDbwR

— Makkal Needhi Maiam | மக்கள் நீதி மய்யம் (@maiamofficial) June 21, 2020

“The mischief lies in continuing to emotionally manipulate people with such statements. I sincerely request the Prime Minister and his supporters to stop doing that. Questions cannot be treated as anti-national,” the MNM president said in his statement.

“Right to ask questions is the base of democracy and we will continue asking till we hear the truth,” Haasan said, pointing out that the prime minister’s statement at the all-party meet on June 19 “contradicted the statements of the Army Officers and Ministry of External Affairs.”

At least 20 Indian Army personnel, including a Colonel-rank officer, were martyred during a clash between the Indian and Chinese troops at Galwan Valley in eastern Ladakh on the night of June 15, triggering an escalation in the already existing tensions between Beijing and New Delhi.

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Further pointing out to Modi’s visits to China, and the Mahabalipuram summit being claimed as a diplomatic success, Haasan said, “If this is the government’s diplomacy, then either their strategy has failed miserably or they failed to read the intentions of the Chinese correctly.”

“In both cases, it is the government who needs to answer a few more questions,” he further said in his statement. Calling for more transparency and accountability, he said, “The government needs to divulge facts about what exactly happened on that day at Galwan so as to stop rumours.”

“We know that certain information will be classified but you can manage communication better than by just saying ‘Don’t doubt the Army’ and ‘don’t be an anti-national’. We are beyond all that now,” the MNM chief added in his statement.

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