Chennai: Slammed by the politicos accusing him of causing public panic against the use of Nilavembu kudineer, the state government's panacea against the vexed dengue, actor-activist Kamal Haasan on Thursday made a quick climb-down saying he had only advocated caution while taking the herbal concoction and never sought its total banishment.
In a statement issued here late evening, the star said he had tweeted to the members of his narpani iyakkam (welfare movement) to refrain from blindly dispensing Nilavembu kudineer out of their over enthusiasm. That did not mean he was against the herbal concoction.
“There is no justification at all in some people spreading falsehood that I am against Nilavembu”, he said.
He explained that he had never approved of his iyakkam distributing any medicine without the doctors' guidance. “I had only criticised the distribution of the medicine (Nilavembu) if done without doctors' advice and in excess of prescribed limits. I am one to appreciate whatever does good for the people. I do not discriminate between Siddha and allopathy”, he said.
And then Kamal came up with a bouncer that seemed to fly over the boundary line. He advocated turning to Kerala for a solution to dengue. “We could learn from neighbouring Kerala how to control dengue; it would have been possible to drive away the mosquito instead of swatting flies”, was the quotable quote.
The star did not elaborate on the Kerala lessons he wished to prescribe for the
TN government. While a late June report had stated that Tamil Nadu and Kerala accounted for 70 per cent of dengue cases in the country, another report in August quoted Kerala health minister admitting in Assembly that 22 lakh people were affected by various fevers since January this year and 420 had succumbed, 24 of them due to dengue.
