Urging the Tamil Nadu government to investigate the sexual harassment allegations made by students against a teacher at a popular Chennai school, Makkal Needhi Maiam president and actor Kamal Haasan said that the school not addressing the issue even after it was brought to notice earlier, diminishes everyone's faith in the system. He said that the entire incident was causing a lot of distress and further beseeched the school in question to coordinate with the proceedings.
A part of his statement read, “Allegations in a few other schools have also come to light. The State government must form an investigation team and investigate these allegations on a war footing.”
“As a father of two daughters, my anxiety over their well-being took the shape of Mahanadi (film) and that anxiety hasn’t come down,” he said and added that parents should supervise children when the latter are on their online classes and should take their issues seriously, if brought to them.
He also said that there is an attempt to turn this into a 'caste issue' for short-term political gains. “If we don’t focus on the crime and the perpetrator of the crime, there is a chance that it would become advantageous to those who committed the crime. No matter which caste the perpetrator belongs to, they must be punished. As an informed society, we must ensure that justice is done,” his statement concluded.