Actor-turned-activist Prakash Raj is facing criticism after an old video of him showering praise on Mohammed Nalapad, son of Congress MLA NA Haris, at an event in January 2017, surfaced recently.
In the video, Raj is seen on stage with Nalapad. He points to Nalapad and praises his upbringing. “This small boy called me here for this function and I said you are doing great work and I’ll surely come to the function. I said I have a Prakash Raj Foundation and that we adopt villages. I asked him for help and he stepped up to help me. Tomorrow, if we adopt a village in Chitradurga and build a house for a poor person, or help a farmer, it is because of this boy,” he is seen saying.
Nalapad is in hot water this week after he was accused of brutally attacking a man in an uptown cafe in Bengaluru on Saturday. While he could not be traced on Sunday, Nalapad surrendered himself to police on Monday amidst high drama. His judicial custody was extended to 7 March at a hearing in the City Magistrate court on Wednesday.
Following news of Nalapad’s arrest, Prakash Raj condemned the incident and demanded that the culprits be punished ‘whoever he is’. However, he is facing a volley of tweets and Facebook posts asking him to publicly apologise and return the money he has taken from Nalapad.
The actor-turned-activist has been outspoken in his criticism of BJP leaders, including Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. In October, he claimed that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was a better actor than him.
More recently, he sent a legal notice to BJP MP Pratap Simha for making derogatory and personal remarks against him. He also criticised MP Anantkumar Hegde for linking nationalism and Hindutva in a recent speech.
The actor, in December last year, questioned Anantkumar Hegde on a statement he had made about Hindutva and nationalism being one and the same.
His critics however are gleefully sharing the video in which he is praising Nalapad. It has also not gone down well with the BJP who are using this to discredit Raj. “Prakash Raj has praised the goonda son of MLA Haris to the skies just because he has given his NGO some money. It proves that he will praise anyone if someone pays him money. He is a hypocrite. He has no right to criticise PM Modi or BJP,” said BJP spokesperson S Prakash speaking to News18.
(This article has been published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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