Facing a case for his comments on Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse, Tamil actor-politician Kamal Haasan on Friday said arresting him would “escalate tension” though he asserted that he does not fear such action.
Sticking to his statement that independent India’s first terrorist was a Hindu and that happened to be Godse, Kamal Haasan reiterated that his comments were “twisted out of context” and blamed his political opponents for making it a big issue and the media for “selectively editing out portions” from his speech.
"I don't fear arrest, but I have got campaigning to do. Let them arrest, but if they arrest me tensions will escalate. This is not my request, but an advice. Better not to do that," Kamal Haasan told reporters at the airport here.
Kamal Haasan is facing a case under Sections 153A and 295A of IPC for “promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion” and “deliberately acting to outrage religious feelings”. The case was filed after his comments triggered a major political row with BJP demanding his arrest for dragging Hindu religion.
Kamal Haasan said he made similar remarks on April 16 on the last day of campaigning for the Lok Sabha polls during a public meeting held at the Marina Beach. “I made similar remarks and it was not noticed then. When I made these remarks on the Marina Beach, people from all religions were present. The comments are being taken note of now by those people whose confidence is dipping,” the actor said.
Contending that every religion has terrorists, Kamal Haasan said he can list many people from many religions. “So, I was talking in that (sense). Every religion has its own terrorists and we cannot claim that we are sanctimonious, and we have not done that. History shows you that all religions have their extremists," he said.
Asked if he would apologise to Hindus without any party leanings for his remarks, he said one should differentiate between Hindus and the RSS.
"We should differentiate who are Hindus, who is RSS. You can't generalise. Political functionaries will get hurt any time, non-political persons with a faith will only wonder for some time why he has spoken like this...things like getting hurt, getting angry and attacking are political tools. They are violent tools," he said.
Meanwhile, police arrested a BJP functionary trying to hurl stones and slippers at Kamal Haasan during a political meeting in Sulur in Coimbatore on Thursday night.