A year since the implementation of demonetisation, actor-filmmaker Prakash Raj on Wednesday demanded an apology from the central government for committing the "biggest blunder".
In a post titled "To whomsoever it may concern", Prakash wrote on Twitter: "While the rich found ways to convert their black money into shiny new notes, this disruptive impact made millions suffer helplessly and the unorganised sector workers went for spin. Would you mind saying sorry for the biggest blunder of our time?"
This day... that age......#justasking... pic.twitter.com/LzcphBwQkz
— Prakash Raj (@prakashraaj) November 8, 2017
On November 8, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes which, he said, was aimed at "eradicating black money and terror funding".
Last week, Prakash -- a popular name in the Kannada, Telugu and Tamil film industries -- supported actor Kamal Haasan's views on "Hindu extremists". A month ago, Prakash had also condemned the "silence" of Modi on certain sections "celebrating" the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru on social media. He had said Modi's silence was "chilling".
A multi-lingual actor and producer with a fan base across south India, Prakash Raj was a close friend of journalist Gauri Lankesh for over three decades.
“Gauri’s father, Mr Lankesh, was our mentor, our teacher. We have been his students, and I knew Gauri for the last 35 years,” he told Republic TV soon after Gauri’s death.
Prakash had also said that though there were many vocal voices in the past such as Lankesh, DR Nagaraj and UR Ananthamurthy, intolerance for such voices had grown more recently. “I am really wondering where are we going towards?” Prakash had asked.
Prakash Raj has won 5 National Awards for films across industries in his long career. These are Best Supporting Actor for Iruvar (1997, Tamil), Special Jury Award for Anthapuram (1999,Telugu), Special Jury Award for various movies (2003, multiple languages), Best Actor for Kanchivaram (2007, Tamil), and Best Film for Puttakkana Highway (2010, Kannada).
(With IANS inputs)