India's "first extremist" was a Hindu, says Kamal Haasan
Stoking a controversy, actor and Makkal Needhi Maiyam founder Kamal Haasan has said free India's first "extremist 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".
However, the Congress and Dravidar Kazhagam, a rationalist organisation floated by Dravidian veteran, the late E V R Periyar, came out in support of the MNM leader.
Addressing an election campaign here on Sunday night, Haasan said he was one of those "proud Indians" who desires an India of 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 extremist was a Hindu, his name is Nathuram Godse. There it (extremism, apparently) starts," he said.
Haasan said he was a "self-assumed great-grandson" of Gandhi and that he