Several years ago, Rajinikanth on the big screen claimed that even if he comes late, he will be the latest. To date it remains a blockbuster punch dialogue. In real life too, his statement on the reopening of the TASMAC liquor shops in Tamil Nadu was fashionably late. But it was neither the latest nor was the political line he took, politically correct.

That the Edappadi Palaniswami government intends to reopen the TASMAC shops in all districts barring Chennai was a known fact for a week now. DMK’s MK Stalin argued against it as did MNM’s Kamal Haasan. The latter went to the Madras High court and secured a stay on the decision after Tamil Nadu sold 20 lakh litres of alcohol worth Rs 170 crore on a single day on 7 May, thereby scoring brownie points.

Now the Superstar stepped on to the scene with a tweet in which he asked the AIADMK government to forget about its dream of returning to power if it reopened the TASMAC shops now. Please look for better ways of filling the coffers,'' he added. This came after the Tamil Nadu government chose to appeal to the Supreme court against the verdict of the High court which it termed as a case of “Judicial overreach”.

It is strange that he chose to focus on whether the AIADMK will be able to return to power in 2021. Shouldn’t he instead spoken about how the crowds at TASMAC shops is not a risk Tamil Nadu with its very high number of cases can afford right now. Rajini ought to have focused on the people, not the party in power. 

Whether inadvertent or not, the tone and tenor of Rajinikanth’s tweet betrayed a concern for AIADMK. Just like he was concerned for Tamil Nadu in 1996 when he said even God cannot save Tamil Nadu if Jayalalithaa returns to power.