Chappals hurled at actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan in Tamil Nadu

Skippers were hurled towards a vehicle from which actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan was addressing an election meeting in the Tirupparankundram Assembly constituency in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday evening, the police said. One person has been detained, the police said, adding that the chappals missed the target and fell on the crowd.

Haasan, the founder of new political outfit Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), kicked up controversy this week with his comment that free India's first extremist was a Hindu, a reference to Mahatma Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse. 

Haasan said what he spoke in Aravakurichi was “historic truth”. Haasan clarified that he did not use the term 'terrorist' when talking about Nathuram Godse.

"They got angry for what I spoke at Aravakurichi. What I spoke (there) is a historic truth. I did not lure anyone to a brawl," he said during a by-poll campaign at Tirupurankundram. He said truth would triumph like the "historic truth I mentioned."

"Understand the meaning for the word extremist. I could have used the word terrorist or murderer (against Godse)... Ours is active politics, there won't be any violence," he said while resorting to wordplay in Tamil to drive home his point.

The MNM leader alleged his speech was edited selectively and took a dig at his detractors, saying the charges levelled against him "apply to my media friends also."

"I am not saying this because this is 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 had said in bypoll-bound Aravakurichi. 

Earlier in the day, the Delhi High Court declined to entertain a PIL which referred to Haasan’s remark about Mahatma Gandhi's assassin being a Hindu terrorist and had sought directions to the Election Commission (EC) to "restrict" misuse of religion for poll gains.

BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay was the remarks by Haasan which was made outside the jurisdiction of the high court here and therefore, it cannot hear it. The court, however, asked the EC to expeditiously decide Upadhyay's representation against Haasan's remark.