Actor Prakash Raj, who participated in the ‘Walk for harmony’ led by Minister in charge of Dakshina Kannada B. Ramanath Rai from Farangipet to Mani on Tuesday, urged people to raise their voices against persons trying to engineer communal trouble.
At a rally at Mani after the padayatra that covered 22 km on Mangaluru–Bengaluru highway, Mr. Raj said the electorate should decide wisely and not cast their vote to persons creating communal tension.
“You need not be spoon-fed. You all know the persons who are trying to spoil communal harmony. You also know the harm they will cause if they are elected,” Mr. Raj said. He added that those politicising gods should not be encouraged. The actor said people were not fools and they knew the forces that were engineering communal riots, be it in Uttara Kannada or Rajasthan. He said while murdering a person was condemnable, it was sinful to politicise the murder of a person.
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Mr. Raj said the goal of the padayatra was to stand against forces that profess murder for a murder.
Minister for Food and Civil Supplies U.T. Khader; Congress MLAs J.R. Lobo, T. Shakuntala Shetty, K. Vasantha Bangera, and B.A. Mohiuddin Bawa; MLC Ivan D’Souza; CPI (M) leader G.V. Srirama Reddy; CPI leader Siddanagouda Patil; Democratic Youth Federation of India State committee president Muneer Katipalla, some zilla panchayat members of the Congress, and Congress councillors participated in the walk.
More than 1,000 police personnel had been deployed to ensure peaceful conduct of the padayatra. A KSRTC bus was reportedly stoned near Farangipet during the walk.
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Mr. Rai had planned the walk in September following communal violence at Kalladka and B.C. Road which claimed two lives in June–July. The government had not allowed the event then.