“When we buried Gauri, we were actually sowing her. They thought she could be silenced, but she lives through us. And if I end up in the Parliament, it will be Gauri’s voice that will be heard there,” actor-turned-activist Prakash Raj confessed on what forced him to contest the Parliament election.
The murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, he said, was the turning point, or rather the wake-up call for him, who was content being a catalyst for political changes till then.
Prakash Raj, who has been courting trouble with his sharp political criticism recently was speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival where his entry to electoral politics besides other hot topics were brought up.
Mr. Raj said he did not want to join a political party only to be expelled in a couple of months for his radical views.
“I do not want to be one vote to save a party. I would rather represent my five lakh people as a citizen’s voice in the Parliament,” he said. He plans to seek a people’s manifesto even while maintaining his own one point manifesto, ‘My money, you deliver, we certify”. He hoped he would inspire others to contest as Independent candidates.
The actor sent a strong message to the ruling BJP government in the context of recent comment by party president Amit Shah that a loss in the 2019 elections will be like the Marathas losing the battle of Panipat in 1719. “I would like to tell Mr. Shah that India is not his father’s property and that this is not 1719. And of course, we are not Afghans, but Indians,” he said.
Earlier, in a conversation with actors Padmapriya and Rima Kallingal, he said men had been predators unknowingly and had got away with it. They should be ashamed that there was the need for a ‘Me Too’ campaign.
He asked why a custom was dividing Kerala if a flood could unite them and advised the freedom-loving people to keep fighting.
