Reporter’s Diary: Anbumani’s script focuses on farmers and food, not film

A visibly agitated Anbumani almost vented his anger on reporters who posed a question on the recent political overtones of actors Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan.  The former Union Health Minister was in the delta district for his party event pertaining to farmers’ issue. 

Initially, an evasive Anbumani tried to skirt around the issue of actors expressing political interests. When a reporter persisted, saying it was also a political issue with some public interest, a perturbed Anbumani said, “We are discussing food and farmers, which are perennial issues, but you are inquiring about Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan.” 

A helpless PMK president G K Mani, who could do little to control Anbumani, also echoed the latter’s sentiments. The sudden outburst of the Dharmapuri MP overshadowed the event, with many 24x7 news channels playing up the ex-minister’s retort, eclipsing the farmers issue. 

While very few would dispute Anbumani’s suggestion on what issue should be high on the agenda of politicians, the PMK leader had, in the past, conveniently mixed cinema and politics to make his discourse effective. Addressing a rally elsewhere in the state a fortnight ago, an equally angry Anbumani made an obvious reference to the overwhelming public support actor Oviya receives in the reality show “Big Boss” and said, “Are you not ashamed? If only the 1.5 crore voters, who voted to save Oviya in the show had voted for me in 2016, I would have saved you.”