Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has come to the rescue of actor Kamal condemning the threat comments by the right-wing group who said people like actor Kamal Hassan should be “shot dead”.
Actor Kamal Hassan is caught in controversy for his statement he gave on 2 November in a Tamil daily about the prevailing muscle power and the increasing Hindu terror in the Tamil Nadu which was taken as an offense by the right-wing group activists and who in turn threatened to shoot him.
Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha leader Ashok Sharma had reportedly said that those who make abusive remarks against Hindus should be punished. He had also called for a boycott of Hassan’s films.
The Kerala CM comment comes two days after Ashok Sharma reportedly said that people like Haasan should be “shot dead”.
The CM posted it on social media that religious fanatics and radical minds issuing such threats should be immediately arrested.
“Strongly condemn such criminal attempts against Kamal Haasan’s freedom of speech by threatening to murder him by Hindu Mahasabha leader(s).
“Such religious fanatics and radical minds issuing murder/assassination threats should be immediately arrested by the concerned authorities a stringent legal action is needed against these persons who threatened to kill Kamal Haasan (sic),” Vijayan said.
He said the nation knows what happened to “Mahatma Gandhi, Pansare, Dhabolkar, Kalburgi, Gauri Lankesh and why?”
“I strongly condemn anyone, following any religion or caste or gender, resorting to terrorism to accomplish their communal agenda to spread unrest in society and destabilize the country,” he added.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also tweeted,”I join @vijayanpinarayi in demanding arrest & prosecution of those inciting violence against KamalHaasan. #StopHate.”
Earlier on 2 November, actor Kamal Haasan in his column in a Tamil weekly ‘Ananda Vikatan’ had said that the right-wing groups have taken to violence because their earlier “strategy” has stopped working.