Rajinikanth has come under criticism from the opposition following his comments on PM Modi and Amit Shah
Highlights
- PM Modi and Amit Shah are master strategists, Rajinikanth said
- Kashmir is a home for terrorists and extremists, he added
- Earlier, he had called them Lord Krishna and Arjuna
Actor-politician Rajinikanth whose praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah earlier this week continues to draw criticism, has come up with a new description of the two leaders. "Master strategists" was his new label - meant to explain his earlier tag of "Krishna-Arjun".
"PM Modi and Amit Shah are master strategists... One gives the plan, another executes," Rajinikanth said on Wednesday. Explaining it in the context of Kashmir, he said, "Kashmir is a home for terrorists and extremists. To impose curfew in Kashmir and to pass it in upper house first is a master strategy."
"PM and Amit Shah are like Lord Krishna and Arjuna. But we don't know who is Krishna and who is Arjuna," the actor had said on Sunday, setting the opposition buzzing.
The Congress had questioned how the two compare to Krishna and Arjuna.
"How can those who snatched away the rights of crores of people be Krishna and Arjuna? Dear Mr Rajinikanth, please read Mahabharat again, please go through it again properly," Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President K S Alagiri had said.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram asked the Superstar "to read German History between 1930 and 1945".
On Wednesday, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi had weighed in. If PM and Amit Shah are Krishna and Arjuna, "Who are the Pandavas and Kauravas? Do you want another 'Mahabharat' in the country?" Mr Owaisi had questioned while addressing a gathering on Eid.
Rajinikanth, who was congratulating the two leaders on what he dubbed "Mission Kashmir" - the revoking of special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating the state into two Union Territories - also had a word of advice for his critics.
"The Kashmir issue is about national security. Politicians should not politicise this," he said.
The BJP had received widespread support for the bills to formalize its plan on Jammu and Kashmir.
The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation bill has received support from opposition parties like Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party and Arvind Kejriwal, besides parties like Naveen Patnaik's Biju Danata Dal, Telangana Rashtra Samithi and YSR Congress, which lend issue-based support to the Centre.
Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK has also supported the bill. But it was opposed by the state's opposition DMK and actor-politician Kamal Haasan.