Kottayam: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said he had several things to be discussed with Tamil Nadu, but the political situation in Tamil Nadu was not congenial, resulting in taking up the issues.

The matter will be taken up when the political situation became firm there, he told veteran actor Kamal Haasan during a mutual interview telecast by a tv channel coinciding with the Onam festival.

Pinarayi said some issues, mainly concerning water-sharing were pending to be discussed.

Such issues should be discussed and settled at government level before it percolated to lower levels leading to unnecessary situations.

Pinarayi said the time had come for southern states to arrive at a consensus on governance which will help development of the region.

Recalling the cooperation of a minister in Andhra Pradesh, he said he had met the minister during a function at Andhra Pradesh recently and took up the issue of getting rice for Kerala.

The minister cleared the papers to transport rice from Andhra Pradesh from the hospital where he was undergoing treatment, he said.

At a dig at the BJP, he said that the country belonged to all who had been living here for thousands of years without any religious, caste or regional discrimination. Some forces were trying to disturb this amity.

Pinarayi said Kerala had become a model state where there was no room for such narrow minded thought. The credit for this goes to the Left movement which got its roots in the early fifties.

Kerala was the only state from where maximum people lived in different countries. Despite this they supported their home State whenever there was crisis.

The government had from the begining taken steps in augmenting health, education and key sectors which made the state reach high levels.

Pinarayi praised the move made by Kamal Haasan to enter into politics and said he had made a good begining and should not go back.