Leading Telugu actor and Jana Sena party chief Pawan Kalyan has urged the Central government to respect sub-national identity, warning that failure to do so could lead to separatist movements.
"If the Centre doesn't respect the subnational identity in a country like ours, which is known for its cultural, linguistic & ethnic diversity then .. they are creating a fertile breeding grounds for separatist movements," he tweeted on Monday.
"North Indian political leadership should understand & respect the cultural diversity of our country," he tweeted while posting newspaper articles about "Hindi chauvinism".
This is latest in a series of tweets by the actor targeting the Central government over the issue of north-south divide.
Pawan has already announced that Jana Sena will contest next elections in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
On April 13, he had appealed to all south Indian political parties to join hands and fight the "biased attitude" of north Indian leadership.
He had launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its former MP Tarun Vijay's remarks about the skin colour of south Indians.
"To BJP leadership and to Tarun Vijay: We are in 'Down South' and we are foundation of this Nation, not your 'Up North' political leadership foot stand," tweeted Pawan, who campaigned for BJP-TDP alliance in the 2014 election, last year but distanced himself from the coalition after the Centre refused to accord special status to Andhra Pradesh.
"If former BJP MP Tarun Vijay and his bosses truly feel apologetic about his racial remarks on dark skinned South Indians, then they should learn one of our Dravidian languages to ease the immense hurt he had caused...Vijay's demeaning racial remarks is a fine example of how north Indian elites and political class view our 'Dravida Bharatha' and its people," he added.
Pawan Kalyan was referring to Tarun Vijay's controversial remarks about South Indian people, that the latter had made.
"Is it not an insult which can be forgotten with an apology," Pawan had tweeted in Telugu.
Speaking to Al Jazeera in the aftermath of violent attacks on Africans in Noida, which many interpreted as racist in nature, Vijay had said, “If we were racists, why would we have, all the entire south, which is complete… you know, Tamil, Kerala and Andhra… why do we live with them? Black people are (also) around us.”
He later apologised for his remark.
In January this year, Pawan had told a news channel that “The north-south divide is not between people but political class. Same rule has to be applied all over.”
“What we all in southern India feel that there is a political elite class of Delhi who want to run the entire country, having majority in Uttar Pradesh. People are rebelling against that thought,” he added.
IANS inputs