Reporter’s diary: Rajini outburst catches saffron camp off guard

Actor and aspiring politician Rajinikanth, who was a CAA supporter, found himself in a peculiar spot after violence broke out over the CAA issue in Delhi, has turned the tables with his outburst against the Centre. Until Wednesday evening, the detractors of the actor-politician were questioning his silence over the issue and raised questions on social media wondering what had happened to the actor’s assurance that he would be the first to come out in protest if the Centre’s controversial CAA move gets out of hand. Rajinikanth gave such an assurance while supporting the Centre over the implementation of CAA, NRC and NPR. However, Rajinikanth, who was busy shooting for his upcoming film Annaatthe, hit out at the Central government saying the violence was due to intelligence failure. “The intelligence failure means Home Ministry’s failure,” he said in a direct attack on Home Minister Amit Shah, that too on a day when the Opposition parties including Congress sought his resignation for failing to contain the violence. Rajinikanth’s criticism came as a jolt to the saffron camp as the actor was supporting the ruling party on issues ranging from demonetisation to the CAA. It was then the turn of BJP supporters, who were defending him on the social media until then, to take cover and give a new interpretation to the actor’s comments, even as the DMK loyalists continued with their attack. The actor, for now, seems to have burnt bridges with the saffron brigade, which had pinned its hope on him to lay the foundation for the downfall of the Dravidian parties’ domination in the state.