Stalin, Kamal Haasan Among Others Protest After ‘Outsider’ Kannadiga VC Appointed To Anna University In TN

Actor Kamal Haasan, who recently entered politics with his Makkal Needhi Maiam party, expressed anger over the appointment of M K Surappa as the Vice Chancellor of Chennai based Anna University, reports TheNewsMinute.

Surappa was appointed as the University’s Vice-Chancellor for a period of three years on Thursday (5 April), by Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit.

Surappa has 30 years experience in teaching, with 24 of them as a faculty at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. He spent the last six years as the Director of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar.

In a tweet posted today, Kamal Haasan claimed that gulf between the people and the government was obvious. With regards to the Kaveri water dispute he claimed that, Tamil Nadu had asked for water from Karnataka, and they had instead been given a Vice-Chancellor.

He thus questioned whether there was a game plan to taunt the Tamil Nadu people so that they react adversely.

Interestingly less than a hour after his tweet, Haasan tweeted out a clarification claiming that the said tweet was a “humorous quip” at the Centre and State governments, and not a swipe at the Chancellor. In the end though he reiterated that Tamil Nadu was in need of water.

Even though Haasan might have dismissed his criticism of the Vice Chancellor as a mere joke, other Tamil Nadu politicians have been pretty serious in their disapproval over the appointment.

In a Facebook post on Thursday (5 April), Dravida Munnethra Kazhagam (DMK) leader M K Stalin called the appointment unacceptable at a time when the Kaveri water issue was in focus.

Further, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S Ramadoss today (6 Friday) commented that the “condemnable appointment” did not respect the feelings of the Tamil people.

He also claimed that PMK would mobilize Anna University’s students to protest against this appointment.