New Delhi (Sputnik): Kamal Haasan, a popular Indian actor has become the target of trolls for having described Mahatma Gandhi's assassin as the first "Hindu terrorist" in independent India.
The actor who recently formed a political outfit in southern India was delivering a speech in a Muslim-dominated area recently when he made the controversial remark: "The first terrorist from independent India was a Hindu. His name was Nathuram Godse".
Godse shot dead national leader and freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi on 30 January 1948, a few months after India gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Godse believed Gandhi had been unfair to Hindus during India's partition and was responsible for the Hindu-Muslim riots that occurred subsequently.
Political leaders lambasted him for not understanding the difference between a terrorist and an assassin and for equating terrorism with Hinduism.
Bollywood Actor Vivek Oberoi accused him of playing to the galleries for votes and said, "You can say Godse was a terrorist, why would you specify ‘Hindu'? Is it because you were in a Muslim dominated area looking for votes?"
The Twitterati were also unforgiving in their comments about widely-acclaimed actor Haasan over his remark appearing to tarnish the entire Hindu community.
Some netizens lambasted the actor-turned-politician saying that whatever image he had earned as an actor-artiste he had lost it completely.