‘Kamal will campaign for urban civic polls’
The Hindu
He won’t leave politics, says party V-P
Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan surprised everyone by going straight to the sets of Bigg Boss, the reality television show that he is hosting, on Saturday right after being discharged from the hospital. Mr. Haasan couldn’t host the show on November 27 after he was diagnosed with COVID-19.
During Mr. Haasan’s hospitalisation, MNM leadership were miffed with some media reports, which stated that he would withdraw from politics soon and give up his political ambitions. This prompted the party’s vice-president and retired IPS officer, A.G. Mourya, to issue a statement saying such reports are ‘disheartening’ when Mr. Haasan has reiterated that he would be in politics as long as he lives.
“I would like to clarify that party leader Kamal Haasan has never thought about leaving politics,” said Mr. Mourya.
Several principals of government and private schools in Delhi on Tuesday said the Directorate of Education (DoE) circular from a day earlier, directing schools to conduct classes in ‘hybrid’ mode, had caused confusion regarding day-to-day operations as they did not know how many students would return to school from Wednesday and how would teachers instruct in two modes — online and in person — at once. The DoE circular on Monday had also stated that the option to “exercise online mode of education, wherever available, shall vest with the students and their guardians”. Several schoolteachers also expressed confusion regarding the DoE order. A government schoolteacher said he was unsure of how to cope with the resumption of physical classes, given that the order directing government offices to ensure that 50% of the employees work from home is still in place. On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) had, on the orders of the Supreme Court, directed schools in Delhi-NCR to shift classes to the hybrid mode, following which the DoE had issued the circular. The court had urged the Centre’s pollution watchdog to consider restarting physical classes due to many students missing out on the mid-day meals and lacking the necessary means to attend classes online. The CAQM had, on November 20, asked schools in Delhi-NCR to shift to the online mode of teaching.