Actor Prakash Raj Questions Narendra Modi’s Silence

Popular multi-lingual actor Prakash Raj from Karnataka has now become a vocal opponent of politics around Hindutva and the BJP in general. In recent times, he has been sharing his views with a social media campaign #justasking raising questions on political developments in the country. On January 17, speaking as a panelist in India Today South Conclave at Hyderabad, Prakash Raj clarified why he has been raising his voice on contemporary Indian politics. He pointed out that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the increasing violence in the name of Hindutva is the reason for him to become politically vocal.

When Gauri Lankesh, editor of weekly Gauri Lankesh Patrike publication was killed, various right-wing activists have celebrated her death with hate posts on social media. A few of them are followed by Narendra Modi on Twitter. “The Prime Minister of this country is following these people. Why is he silent?” Prakash Raj asked and said that his silence speaks. Countering his critics’ claim that he is being anti-Hindu, he said “I’m not anti-Hindu but I’m anti-Narendra Modi, anti-Amit Shah and anti- Ananth Kumar Hegde.”

Though Narendra Modi following such hate mongers on social media made headlines, the Prime Minister hasn’t made any clarifying statements in regard to this. As of now, with 39.5 million followers on Twitter, Modi is the third most followed political leaders after former US President Barack Obama and US President Donald Trump in the first and second rank respectively. 

According to an Alt News report, serial abusers, rumor-mongers, misogynists, handles brimming with communal venom are among those persons followed by the Indian Prime Minister. While many of them claim to be Modi bhakts, patriots and nationalists, one curious question emerges. Is Narendra Modi a silent bystander to this fanaticism?

On the other side, Narendra Modi has never addressed a press conference after he became the prime minister in 2014 but continued to remain as the main election campaigner for the BJP party. In last November, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal criticised Modi as the first Prime Minister in the country’s history who never held a press conference fearing lack of ability to answer questions raised by journalists. So far, Narendra Modi limited himself to public meetings, his monthly radio show Mann Ki Baat and occasional TV appeals like the demonetisation announcement in November 2016.

Prakash Raj also rubbished the allegations against him that he received land from Congress-led Karnataka government. To the question raised by journalist Rahul Kanwal in this matter, Prakash Raj said that he had earned enough land and money in his career as an actor in the last three decades.

In 2015, Prakash Raj adopted Kondareddypally village in Telangana’s Mahaboobnagar district and is contributing to the development of village’s infrastructure.