Kamal Haasan is practicing a new style of politics wherein he is severe when criticizing the ruling state and central governments and also does not shy away from appreciating whenever appropriate. Only a few days back he had written an open letter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his entire India lockdown for 21 days which read "I write this letter to urge the Government to not lose sight of the plight of these unsung heroes who toil hard to power our economy and build our nation. The 'Economic Response task force' set up by the government needs to address the issue with alacrity." He added, "...More than 90 percent of our workforce is the informal sector who make their daily ends meet. If we consider the workforce even in the 'formal' sector that does not enjoy standard employee benefits, this could be more than 95%. They are our construction workers, agriculture and manual labourers, fishermen, MSME workers and so on."

Today the Finance Minister Nirmala Seetharaman announced one lakh seventy thousand crores worth relief measures for the poor and needy of the society the highlights of which are

• PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme will entail Rs 1.7 lakh crore.
• It will include both cash transfer and food security.
• Provide insurance cover worth Rs 50 lakh for sanitation workers, ASHA workers, doctors, nurses, paramedics in case they need it as they are on the frontlines of the corona battle.
• Over and above 5kg of rice/wheat that is already given, another 5 kg per person will be given free to around 80 crore people through PDS. Besides, one kg of preferred and reg ..

   

Dear @nsitharamanoffc & @PMOIndia Thank you for reaching out to the poorest of the poor. My fear of the Underprivileged losing their livelihood led to my out burst and the open letter to the Prime Minister. This act of supporting them during this crisis is much appreciated. https://t.co/FIA2Y7kQAA

— Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) March 26, 2020