India’s first terrorist was Godse, a Hindu: Haasan

Aravakurichi (TN), May 13

Stoking a controversy, actor and Makkal Needhi Maiyam founder Kamal Haasan has said free India’s first “terrorist was a Hindu” — Nathuram Godse, who killed Mahatma Gandhi.

Haasan’s comments drew sharp reaction from the state BJP, which slammed him for indulging in “divisive politics”.

Addressing an election campaign here on Sunday night, Haasan said he was one of those “proud Indians” who desires an India with equality and where the “three colours” in the Tricolour, an obvious reference to different faiths, “remained intact”.

“I am not saying this because this is a Muslim-dominated area, but I am saying this before a statue of Gandhi. Free India’s first terrorist was a Hindu, his name is Nathuram Godse. There it (terrorism, apparently) starts,” he said.

Haasan said he was a “self-assumed great-grandson” of Gandhi and that he had come here “seeking answers for that murder”, referring to Gandhi’s assassination in 1948.

Aravakurichi is one of the four Assembly constituencies where bypolls are scheduled on May 19. MNM has fielded S Mohanraj from this segment. — PTI

BJP moves EC, seeks 5-day ban on Haasan 

• The BJP moved the Election Commission, seeking a five-day ban on Kamal Haasan
• The complaint has been filed by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay, saying the statement was intended to outrage religious feelings of millions of Hindus
• Establishing his comment as a corrupt practice, the complaint said: "It is necessary to state that the statement was made deliberately in the presence of a Muslim majority crowd for electoral gain, which is clearly a corrupt practice under Section 123 (3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951"