Day after veteran actor Kamal Haasan said 'hindu terror' does exist, the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha on Friday said he and the likes of him "should be shot dead or hanged" for using abusive language for people belonging to Hindu faith.
"Kamal Haasan and likes of him should either be shot dead or hanged so that they learn a lesson. Any person who uses abusive language for people belonging to Hindu faith does not have the right to live on this holy land and they should get death in return of their remarks," the Times of India quoted Pandit Ashok Sharma, national vice president of the outfit as saying.
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In a column written for a Tamil magazine, Haasan, who is soon expected to join politics, alleged that Hindu outfits can no longer deny the existence of extremism among their ranks.
"In the past the Hindu right used to engage only in intellectual debates with the other religious groups. Once this approach started failing they have resorted to muscle power. They too started indulging in violence. The Hindus cannot challenge others to show extremists among them since extremism has spread to that extent even among the Hindus,” he wrote.
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Kamal’s charge came in reply to a question posed to him by Kerala Chief Minister Pinariayi Vijayan if Tamil Nadu’s social reformist agenda was being undermined by the intrusion of Hindutva forces in the state’s polity.
Kamal’s latest theory on Hindu extremism is another attempt by the actor to move farther away from the BJP. Only two weeks ago he had done U-Turn about demonetization, calling its intent fraudulent after having initially welcomed it as a bold move against black money.
In his earlier column in Vikatan, Kamal had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept that note ban was a wrong move. He had also said that he was “duty-bound to openly apologise for his haste" in lauding demonetisation.
Clearly the film star is attempting to worm his way into the anti-BJP front that is emerging ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
A complaint has been filed against the actor for hurting religious sentiments with his remarks in court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate by a lawyer Kamlesh Chandra Tripathi in UP.
In his complaint, Tripathi accused the actor of hurting religious sentiments of Hindus by making inflammatory and derogatory remark of Hindu terrorism.
He sought lodging of a case under IPC sections 500, 522, 298, 295(A) and 505(C).
(Inputs from PTI)
