This Article is From Jan 31, 2013

Jayalalithaa alleges 'hysteria, wild charges' over Vishwaroopam ban

Chennai: The nationwide furore over her government's ban on Kamal Haasan's mega production Vishwaroopam forced Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to defend the move with some detailed math today, saying she had no other option.

The CM said her first priority was to maintain law and order in the face of objections voiced by several Muslim groups in the state, that had threaten to carry out demonstrations and protests if the film was released.

The Tamil Nadu government has banned the film, despite it being cleared by the country's censor board, saying it fears communal tension in the state if it is released. The Madras High Court has upheld the ban.

"Allowing violence to take place and then stepping in, what would the alternative for the government be?" Ms Jayalalithaa said, adding that her government also had intelligence inputs that there would be law and order problems.

This, she said, would have meant having to provide police protection to the 524 theatres at which the film was to be released. She did some elaborate arithmetic to say that the state would have needed to deploy more than 31,000 cops to provide that protection round-the-clock, which was not feasible.    

Decks could be cleared for the release of the film if the actor and the groups that had objections to the film sorted the matter out, she said.  

She also rubbished the claim of Kamal Haasan's supporters that the ban is political. And slammed the allegation that it is linked to the television rights for the film not been given to Jaya TV, the mouthpiece of the AIADMK as "wild and reckless".

"Over the last few days, there has been lot of hysteria in the media. Wild and reckless charges have been made by various personalities and certain sections of the media," she said adding "I have been accused of having private interests, Jaya TV does not belong to me, I do not own any shares in Jaya TV , it is a channel that supports AIADMK."  She said she would take legal action on this.

She also attacked Kamal Hassan saying, "Mr Kamal Haasan has the freedom to air political views and if he wants a veshti clad politician as the PM then that is his opinion," referring to the actor recently pitching for the Congress' P Chidambaram as a candidate for PM. "Mr Kamal Haasan doesn't select the PM," she said.

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