A day after a controversy broke out over his letter seeking to secure the job of a few leftist subordinates in his organisation, veteran Malayalam filmmaker Kamal has come out with a clarification.
Kamal, who heads the Kerala State Chalachithra Academy, said he wrote the letter to Cultural Affairs Minister A K Balan seeking to regularise the appointment of its four employees in his personal capacity.
In the letter, Kamal had sought to regularise their appointment as they support the Leftist ideology. He mentioned their political affiliations after mentioning their professional competency and the services they have done for the academy.
Kamal on Wednesday said he did not mean any particular political party when he mentioned 'leftist values' in the letter. “The letter was not meant to protect the interests of any particular political party. I used the term 'Leftist' in a broader sense,” Kamal told Manorama News. He said the cultural spaces were moving closer to the right wing and it has to be resisted.
He admitted that he should have been more cautious in his choice of words.
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala mentioned the letter in the state Assembly on Tuesday as an evidence of the alleged nepotism being practised by the CPM-led government in recruitment to government jobs. "Is being a Left sympathiser a criterion to get a permanent government job?" The Congress leader asked.
In reply to Chennithala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the recommendation letter was rejected by minister Balan himself.
