Prakash Raj said incidents of public killings and moral policing amounted to terrorism.
Highlights
- In column, Kamal Haasan highlights 'Hindu terror', criticises violence
- Prakash Raj backs comments, asks if lynching, moral policing not terror
- Has earlier drawn right-wing ire over comments on Gauri Lankesh murder
Noted South Indian actor Prakash Raj,
who risked the wrath of right-wing social media users last month with his comments over the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, has commissioned a sequel.
Seemingly voicing support for Tamil mega-star Kamal Haasan
who provoked a similar confrontation yesterday saying that terrorism has infected right-wing groups, Mr Raj said, "If instilling fear in the name of religion... culture... morality is not terrorizing... then what is it. Just asking."
In a Twitter post titled "To whomsoever it may concern", 52-year-old Prakash Raj added: "If abusing and manhandling young couples on the streets of my country in the name of morality is not terrorising... If taking law into hands and lynching people on slightest doubt of cow slaughter is not terrorising... If trolling with abuse, threat... to silence even a slightest voice of dissent is not terrorising... Then what is terrorizing... Just asking."His comments came a day after Mr Haasan, 62, wrote in a popular Tamil weekly news magazine that while earlier right-wing Hindus used to argue without indulging in violence, many of them now do otherwise. "Extremism has spread into their camp as well," said Mr Haasan, who is revving up for a political career. "This extremism is not a victory or progress to those who call themselves Hindus," he said.
The ruling BJP described Mr Haasan's remarks as "myopic and brazen" and called him
a "wannabe MGR" referring to AIADMK party founder and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran.
Last month, Mr Raj had said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence on the unsolved murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh is why his five National Awards are deserved by "bigger actors" including the PM.
Gauri Lankesh, a critic of right-wing ideology and a fierce advocate of secularism, was shot as she returned home early in September from her office in Bengaluru. The 55-year-old published a weekly paper. Nobody has been arrested yet; police have issued sketches of two suspects and sought help from the public.
Prakash Raj began his career in Kannada films but has acted in Tamil and Malayalam movies and was a close friend of Ms Lankesh.