Bengaluru, Oct 2: Acclaimed Bollywood actor and columnist Prakash Raj, who is known as Prakash Rai in coastal Karnataka, has threatened to return his five National Awards and condemned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on certain sections “celebrating” the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh on social media.
“Those who killed Gauri may or may not be traced but that apart, there is a huge crowd out there enjoying and celebrating on social media. We all know who they are, what their ideology is. Some of those celebrating this ghastly episode are being followed by none other than Mr Modi himself. This is what worries me, where is our country is headed to?” he questioned at the 11th state meet of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) in Bengaluru.
He went on to say that he would return his awards. “I say you keep it. I don’t want the awards. Don’t tell me that good days will come,” he said at the event.
He went on to call Modi an actor: “I am a renowned actor, do you (Modi) think I will not be able to detect when you are acting. At least show me some respect, considering the fact that I am an actor and I will be able to tell what is the truth and what is acting.”
He said he was “worried about the PM’s silence”. Gauri was murdered near her Bengaluru home on September 5. Raj was a close friend of the journalist and an ardent admirer of her father, P Lankesh.
Raj had voiced his opinion after Gauri’s murder too. “I knew Gauri for 30 years. In a sense, we were all children of (P) Lankesh, his ideologies and way of life. I never dreamt that this day would come. We were taught to be honest citizens, who would never seize to raise one’s voice. In fact, I don’t think anyone voiced their opinion more than P Lankesh himself. This was how we were taught to be. It is astonishing to see where we have come to today,” he had said.
Also Read: Not a fool to give my awards to Modi or Yogi: Prakash Raj
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