Take action against Kamal Haasan for inciting communal tension: BJP to poll panel

CHENNAI: The BJP on Monday demanded that the Election Commission take stringent action against actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan for inciting communal tension. The national party charged the actor with inciting people during his election campaign in Aravakurichi Assembly constituency facing by-election on May 19, by calling Nathuram Godse as the first Hindu terrorist of independent India.

Taking strong exception to Kamal's speech, BJP's legal cell state president R. Soundararajan said in a complaint to CEO Satyabrata Sahoo that the actor's intention was to create religious unrest in the society and create communal tension in Aravakurichi constituency and all over the state.

“This is a gross violation of the code of conduct,” Soundararajan said and added that Pallapatti is a thickly populated Muslim area where the actor spoke (on Sunday night). Hence, he sought the EC to take “stringent action”.

While addressing an election campaign at Aravakurichi, Kamal said he was one of those “proud Indians” who desired a 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 had said.