Political acting has begun: BJP demands Kamal Hassan’s arrest for calling Godse first Hindu terrorist

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded the arrest of Kamal Haasan over the actor-politician’s remark that Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse was independent India’s first terrorist. Asking the Election Commission to treat the speech of Kamal Haasan, the leader of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, the BJP said the actor-politician was trying to create a rift among two groups in the name of religion. “Actor Kamal Haasan recalling Gandhi’s assassination now and calling it Hindu terrorism is condemnable. Standing amidst minorities in TN byelection campaign, he is lighting a dangerous fire to gain votes by minority appeasement,” president of Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit Tamilisai Soundararajan? tweeted on Monday. “Uttering nonsense in a sensitive subject violating the poll code of conduct. Let us hope for EC to handle with all sense as per law of the land against hate speech,” Soundararajan added. She also reminded Kamal Haasan of the time when he had threatened to leave India is his movie (Vishwaroopam) was not allowed to release. “Now he calls himself true Indian! True political acting started now having lost the chances in screenplay,” she added. Earlier, campaigning for his party Makkal Needhi Maiam’s candidate for the May 19 Assembly byelection in Aravakuruchi in Karur district on Sunday, Kamal Haasan has said: “The first terrorist of an independent India was a Hindu — Nathuram Godse.” Nathuram Vinayak Godse shot Mahatma Gandhi dead in New Delhi on January 30, 1948. “I’ve come to question that killing — think about it that way,” Kamal Haasan had said.