Tamil Nadu Minister of Law, Courts & Justice C.Ve. Shanmugam has said that actors are free to take to politics as per their wish. “Not everybody can become an MGR and these actors won’t succeed in their political endeavours,” he said.

The Minister was speaking at a public meeting organized by the ruling AIADMK at Villupuram District near Mandharai Thidal to celebrate the 70th birthday celebrations of the party’s ‘permanent’ general secretary and deceased former chief-minister Jayalalithaa. He asserted that the evil designs of ‘vested interests’ to ‘block and tame’ the AIADMK in the aftermath of Jayalalithaa’s demise won’t succeed.

“Merely staying with Jayalalithaa for 30 years doesn’t make anyone qualified to be in politics.  Nobody can destroy the AIADMK; in fact, it is the DMK which is the root cause of many issues plaguing the State now. In particular, DMK remained inactive for long and didn’t attempt to resolve the Mullai Periyar Dam row and the Cauvery river-water sharing issue besides the Katchativu issue.

“It is indeed ironical that the DMK leaders have been saying of late that they would resolve these issues if they are given power; why didn’t they do so when they actually held power?” the Minister wondered and added as a final touch that though actors are free to take to politics in a democracy, they can never succeed in politics.