By: Rizwan Asad
The Reel Life Actor Turns A Real Life Politician Prakash Raj needs no special introduction, as he is a very popular multilinguistic actor, producer & director having worked not only in all the South Indian languages namely Kannada, Malyalam, Tamil & Telugu but also in varied other languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bhojpuri, English et al! And now at this age & stage he has said a final good bye to the Indian Cinema industry forever to step into the Political arena to contest for the forthcoming Loksabha elections as an independent candidate. Tune in for his political nuggets in his Garden house on off MG Road.
*So Prakashji you are now all set to contest the forthcoming Loksabha elections as an independent candidate. So what brings you back to Bangalore? *But what made you to take the decision to come back to Bangalore only & contest for the elections? *Sir I was never away from Bangalore as Bangalore is where my real roots are. So you see there is no coming back syndrome as far as Bangalore is concerned! To that my answer once again is that I don’t come, I have been brought & it is always the situation that brings me here. This time I came to observe the political scenario & also to see where our country & its politicians are headed and as compared to that where our voters are headed and whether together they all are forming the correct political scenario or not?
*But why only Bangalore? You could have contested the forthcoming elections from anywhere? *You see I belong to Bangalore & today whatever I am or whatever qualities I have is because of my upbringing & my roots in Bangalore. I have learned my craft here & I have started my career on stage & films as an actor in Kannada films from Bangalore. Actually speaking Bangalore has empowered me, whatever I have achieved today & whatever qualities I have acquired is because of my deeply enmeshed roots in Bangalore. So Bangalore has given me so much that I thought it was payback time. I want to do something for my Bangalorean people. Hence I decided to restart my independent political journey from Bangalore all over again. I also realized that I should be the voice of the Bangaloreans in particular & of the entire India in general & this way I can take their demands to the parliament on a State & National level too. Now it remains to be seen if I can succeed in my mission & if the people of Bangalore will accept me as their independent leader.
*So what do you think of the current political scenario? * I feel that the current political scenario is more in a denial mode. Nobody, I mean none of the parties are showing the correct picture of Bangalore’s varied culture, its varied languages thereby it effects the current & the correct representation in the constitution. So my advice to them is to get their act together, one which would help them to make the proper inclusion of the massaes vote bank in order to have their right representation in the constitution.
*Don’t you think today’s politics constitutes more of a disordered chaos!!!
*Yes! You are right we find a lot of chaos everywhere & especially in all the corners of the political arena. What we need today is that people should strive to keep alive the spirit of humanity by understanding the right nuances of politics as befitting to the human spirit, those politicians who do not follow these rules needless to say that they end up in a clueless chaos.
*I am sure many political parties may have invited you to contest the elections. Yet you decided to go independent. Why? *Yeah many political parties which are on the verge of decline dangle baits in your way and most of them just strive to hang on to the invited people to survive in the cesspool of politics but thankfully I am not one of those who will bite the bait. So I thought it is better to contest the election as an independent candidate.
*How different is today’s politics as compared to the earlier times? *Of course there is a vast difference in today’s politics as earlier they were committed to their cause of the betterment of the country & its people but today everyone knows what’s going on so the less spoken about the current situation the better.
*So where have all those committed politician gone?
*No one knows. So what do you want me to do should I go & find them?
*Most of the politicians & even the voters are illiterate so do you think that something should be done in this regard?
*You tell me what can be done in this regard? The system definitely has to be changed. But who will bell the cat?
*Do you think that the voters can be blamed as most of them, especially the hi-fi people do not step out of their apartments or bungalows & do not even come out to exercise their power of vote?
*Nothing can be done as long as the so called hi-fi voters themselves realize their follies & understand what change they can bring about with their power of vote. They should realize about their duties towards their country. Nowadays the illiterate people in distant villagers are also becoming conscious about their duties & even making their brethren realize about their duties & responsibilities towards their country.
*Lastly how do you think the system can be changed for a better leader who can at least think of everyone’s well-being?
*Simple! Let the voter’s analyze the situation & and choose the right candidate mind you not the party. Don’t get tempted by dangling baits & false promises.
