Mahendran, who gained renewed prominence for his role as a younger version of Bhavani in the Vijay starrer Master, has issued another clarification on his contentious comments about power outage in Tamil Nadu. It has been a hot topic of debate ever since TVK chief Vijay took charge as the CM of Tamil Nadu. In one of his recent interviews, Master Mahendran said that people should not question the government for six months and should rather tolerate the issue of power outage in the state.
The actor's comments received much flak on social media, causing him to issue multiple clarifications on it. In the latest clarification, Master Mahendran said that he is shocked to see the comments criticising his opinion on social media. "Everyone who respects me and whose ideas I believed to be correct for a long time, they have all criticised me," the actor said. He added that those critics should have tried to understand the nuance of what he said in the interview, instead of going by the remarks literally, based on an edited clip that does not represent the full extent of his comments.
Mahendran said that his comments about whether it is right to question the government for the outages right now were aimed at those "who play politics with electricity and people's feelings and whose sole intention is to raise questions all the time."
The actor said that he made his "misunderstood" comments in the same sense as Vijay, when the latter asked for six months time to set things right as he came into governance. In the recent interview, Mahendran also suggested that Tamil Nadu should take inspiration from Kerala, where Cochin International Airport uses solar energy. Apologising for his comments, the actor said, "It is my mistake. I had a slip of the tongue there," before adding that he was only "an average student" during his education years.
Master Mahendran added that when he saw an entire airport running on solar energy in Kerala, he thought why the government has not implemented something similar in Tamil Nadu. He then said that former CM Jayalalithaa used a similar technology to conserve power for the benefit of the public and suggested that if the state implemented this in a large scale, it could have better dealt with the electricity issue.
The actor added that when he rhetorically asked people to draw power from his own home, he did not mean it to offend those affected by the issue. "I have also suffered just like you," the actor clarified.
Supporting the actor, Vinodhini Vaidynathan wrote, "I know him and he’s always come across as down to earth and genuine. Good to see him taking accountability for the recent controversy and giving a clarification. Best wishes, Mahendran - it takes good intention to say sorry and start over."
