Tamil superstar-turned-politician Kamal Haasan is no stranger to controversies, before and after his advent to politics. His stand on various social issues has often managed to get enough outrage as well as support on social media and news channels. So when the actor got into a Twitter Q&A session with his fan recently, we were hardly surprised when a controversy erupted over one of his answers.

It all began when a Twitter user asked him on his stand on caste. This is what Kamal Haasan replied, "I refused to fill in the caste&religion column in both my daughters' school admission certificate. That's the only way,it will pass on to the next generation. Every individual shld start contributing fr progress. Kerala started implementing the same. Those who do shld be celebrated. (sic)". This could have been a noble repartee indeed, considering the fact that Kamal Haasan is a Brahmin by birth and through such statements, he wants to stay away from the so-called merits of the higher-caste.

However, his statement drew flak from various sections, especially when someone brought up an old video of his elder daughter, Shruti Haasan, where she proclaims her 'Iyengar' caste. The below video is taken from the chat show Look who's talking with Niranjan. In the video, host  Niranjan Iyengar asks Shruti why she keeps calling him as her Aambalaiyaan. To which, she replies, "It is because you're Iyengar and I am Iyengar and we are both creative. And there's a very high chance that nobody will marry either of us." Errr....

An article in The News Minute pointed at an older interview given by Shruti to the Times of India, where she was describing her upbringing. She had said, "I was born and brought up in Chennai. My dad is an Iyengar and my mom a half-Maharashtrian and half-Rajput. The Iyers have the better looking boys and the Iyengars the prettier girls."

Many Twitter users have been taking up these two interviews of Shruti to accuse Kamal Haasan of double standards when it comes to his stand on casteism. They reminded him that there is a difference between 'not believing in caste' and 'not practising caste'.

Also, D Ravikumar, general secretary, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, spoke to TOI, where he lambasted Kamal's tweet. He had said,  "(The tweet) shows that his understanding of caste system is shallow which is why he suggests such remedies. My humble request for Kamal would be to read Ambedkar's Annihilation of Caste."

Like we said before, Kamal Haasan definitely has a knack for attracting unwanted controversy.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 02, 2018 02:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).