As protests raged across the country, an actor from southern state of Kerala posted an image that had a story about a Dutch Prime Minister from 1672, who got killed by an angry mob. He was referring to Johan de Witt, who controlled the Dutch political system from around 1650 until shortly before his death in 1672.
“In 1672, a mob of angry Dutch killed and ate their Prime Minister. Options. Just Saying,” the post by Tiny Tom read.
After the post sparked controversy, Tom deleted it and explained that his intention was not to cause any violence.
The actor posted a video on Facebook in his mother language Malayalam in which he said, "I never thought that the post would create such a huge controversy. I would like to apologise for my earlier post, which was misunderstood by people using social media. I never had any intention to trigger any sort of violence. My intention was to question the unfortunate incidents happening across the country in the name of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
I am not the kind of a person who encourages any kind of violence against the Prime Minister or any political organisations."
Tom started his career as a mimicry artist. He made his big-screen debut with the film “Panchapandavar”, released in 1998, but it was through the superstar Mammootty-starrer “Pattalam” (Army) that he gained notice. He got his career break with “Pranchiyettan & the Saint” in which he portrayed the role of a driver.
Countrywide protests are taking place on Thursday against the controversial act, despite prohibitory orders imposed by several states across the country.
The controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, enacted by the federal government grants citizenship to illegal immigrants from six religious minorities – Hindus, Parsis, Jains, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs, but excludes Muslims, from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, if they arrived in India prior to 2015.
