In his maiden speech in Rajya Sabha, Kamal Haasan calls Special Intensive Revision a ‘disease giving rise to many living dead’

Actor-turned-MP and president of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) Kamal Haasan, successful his maiden code successful the Rajya Sabha connected Wednesday (February 4, 2026), raised concerns implicit the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. He said the SIR could delete 1 crore voters from the database successful Tamil Nadu and expressed enactment for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s absorption to the SIR.

Citing the SIR successful Bihar, helium said the State had go a onshore of “many surviving dead”, and added this illness should not beryllium allowed to dispersed crossed the country. “Election Commission is surely facilitating the dispersed of this disease,” Mr. Haasan said. “My imminent interest is the forthcoming elections. I wrote it down, reasoning lone of the present. I telephone it the spell-checked communicative of the surviving dead. We privation to formed a vote, and the predetermination committee is checking our close to vote. They are checking the spellings and addresses, and that excessively erroneously. We conscionable privation to formed our vote,” Mr. Haasan said.

“We fearfulness that determination could soon beryllium astir 1 crore surviving dormant connected insubstantial successful Tamil Nadu,” helium added and demanded that the “living dormant beryllium resurrected”. “If you garbage to assistance america with this redirection, you execute thing but half-baked, half-finished amerciable electoral conquest,” Mr. Haasan said. “This antiauthoritarian juggernaut volition rotation implicit differences, but should ne'er rotation implicit people. We volition not let it. Nobody is immortal. No authorities tin oregon should purpose for permanency. No authorities successful the past of this satellite has achieved it yet, and nary ever will. This authorities besides falls nether the cosmopolitan governmental unwritten law,” Mr. Haasan said portion asking each to “grow up on with a increasing progressive democracy”.

Kamal Haasan raises SIR contented successful Rajya Sabha

Nirmala Sitharaman’s response

Later successful the day, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said connected X, referring to the connection by Mr. Hassan successful his Rajya Sabha speech, alleging that she had utilized derogatory words astir the Tamil language successful 2025. Ms. Sitharaman clarified that she had quoted Periyar E.V. Ramasamy Naicker and it was not her views. She besides attached a video clipping of the code to enactment her claim.