Renowned actor Prakash Raj on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is 'bigger artist' than him. His remarks are based on PM Modi's silence on the murder of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh and subsequent character assassination by people he follows on Twitter.
"The PM is is a bigger actor than me, I should give him my award," the national award winning actor said at the 11th state meet of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) youth wing of CPI(M).
Prakash Raj also said the ideology of the people who celebrate Gauri Lankesh's murder is open secret and PM follows them. “We know all those people and their ideology, who were rejoicing the murder of Gauri Lankesh on social media. Mr Narendra Modi himself follows them. It worries me", he said
"Modi’s silence on 'his followers’ actions' clarifies 'he is trying to be a bigger actor than me'," Prakash Raj said.
He said acting and truth can be detected easily. "As an actor, I can differentiate between acting and truth", he added.
Later Prakash Raj clarified his stand on returning his National Award. "I saw the scrolling on the news channels 'Prakash Raj has decided to give back his national awards', I am not such a fool to give back national awards which have been given to mine body of work and I am very proud of", he said in a video clip which he shared on his Twitter account.
However, he repeated his remarks on Narendra Modi's silence over celebrating the killing of Gauri Lankesh. "I feel pain when Prime Minister of my country is not taking stand on those commenters (celebrating Lankesh's murder) whom followed by PM himself", the actor said.
Lankesh, the 55-year-old editor of Kannada tabloid Gauri Lakesh Patrika, was shot dead by an unknown assailant at her residence in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru on September 5. There are allegations that she was assassinated by the right-wing group in order to suppress dissenting voices.
Published 02 October 2017, 12:59 IST