Hours after Kamal Haasan-led Makkal Needhi Maiam party announced on its website that it has decided to merge with Indian National Congress, the official statement has gone mysteriously missing from the website. No official clarification has been issued by the party so far.
Earlier in the day, Makkal Needhi Maiam had issued a strangely worded statement announcing that it will formally merge with the Congress party on 30 January. The decision of the merger was taken after Kamal Haasan met Rahul Gandhi, they had said. “On 30th January – we will bring Bapu back from the dead to fight Hindutva. That is the message,” the party said in its statement.
Moreover, Kamal Haasan was quoted as saying, “Ever since Rahul Gandhi said that he had killed Rahul Gandhi, I wanted to do something similar. Today Makkal Needhi Maiam has killed Makkal Needhi Maiam, and we are all Congress.”
The strangely worded statement referred to India as ‘the South Asian Union of States’, in line with Rahul Gandhi’s claim that India is not a nation but a union of states.
But now the statement has been taken down from the website of the party, and the message “File not found” is displayed on visiting the URL of the statement. The archived version of the statement can be accessed here.
According to sources, the PRO of Kamal Haasan has said that they had not issued the statement, and therefore it has been taken down. It is not known whether some party leader uploaded the statement without the knowledge of the top leaders, or whether the website was hacked.
However, after the statement was deleted, the website of the Makkal Needhi Maiam was also taken offline. On visiting the website, a message appears saying that are performing some maintenance.
A formal statement from the Kamal Haasan or the Makkal Needhi Maiam is awaited.
It is notable that Makkal Needhi Maiam has already announced support for Congress candidate E.V.K.S. Elangovan from the DMK-led alliance in upcoming Erode bypolls in Tamil Nadu. Last month, Kamal Haasan joined Rahul Gandhi in his Bharat Jodo Yatra in New Delhi.
Update: Makkal Needhi Maiam has now released a statement saying that their website was hacked.
மக்கள் நீதி மய்யம் கட்சியின் அதிகாரப்பூர்வ வலைதளம் விஷமிகளால் ஹேக் செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளது. ஜனநாயக சக்திகளை ஒடுக்கியே பழக்கப்பட்ட ஈனர்களின் இழிசெயல்களுக்கு அஞ்சாமல் தக்க பதிலடி கொடுப்போம்.
— Makkal Needhi Maiam | மக்கள் நீதி மய்யம் (@maiamofficial) January 27, 2023
In a tweet on Friday evening, the party said that they are not afraid of despicable deeds of those who are accustomed to suppressing the democratic forces, and they will give a befitting reply. Their website still remains down at the time of updating this report.
