Right-Wing Trolls on the Backfoot After Mindless Hounding of Actor Prakash Raj Backfires

Actor Prakash Raj had only put out a screenshot from a well-known meme celebrating entrepreneurship of expatriate Malayalee speakers/Keralites, and their remarkable ability to make the most of adverse circumstances anywhere.

New Delhi: On Monday, actor Prakash Raj was slammed by trolls, mostly comprising supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who saw his latest post on social media as an insult to the prime minister.

In a hat-tip to the intrepid enterprise of Malayalees, Raj put out a screenshot from an old short meme/film about Neil Armstrong (the first human being to walk on the moon in 1969) encountering an already settled shopkeeper, a Malayalee entrepreneur offering him a glass of legendary Kerala tea on the moon.

The actor shared a post on social media featuring a cartoon that depicted a man pouring tea, the popular ‘Mallu Chaiwala’ meme. “BREAKING NEWS:- First picture coming from the Moon by #VikramLander Wowww #justasking”, it said.

 

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A post shared by Prakash Raj (@joinprakashraj)

Livemint summarised some of the trolling saying that they “pointed out that the Chandrayaan-3 mission belong to ISRO and India. A success of the mission would be an achievement for the country and not just BJP. The post was termed insensitive and derogatory by users who urged him to show respect for the scientists responsible for India’s historic Moon mission.”

“Chandrayaan-3 is something the whole of India must be proud of, irrespective of political ideology. Know the boundary between political vs national trolling,” wrote one user, reportedly.

“This is tragically sad. The work of ISRO and Chandrayaan-3 are one of those rare things which ignites sparks of unity, passion and optimism in a billion hearts. If you can’t celebrate that, then your hate for an individual is more intense than your love for the nation,” wrote one person.

“Prakash ji, you should be very ashamed of yourself for mocking and insulting the selfless contributions of our patriotic scientists like Dr Abdul Kalam, T K Anuradha and others,” said C.R. Keshavan, BJP’s national spokesperson.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi also said, “I condemn Prakash Raj for this shameful tweet.”

Several mainstream news outlets too regurgitated the hyped trolling of Raj.

But as one user rightly pointed out, Raj’s post had nothing whatsoever to do with the prime minister or Indian scientists. He was just playing on the age-old joke that wherever one goes in the world, one will find a Malayali.

Raj responded to all the trolling by saying, “if you dont get a joke then the joke is on you”.

Prakash Raj, in the field since 1991, has often been in the crosshairs of the BJP and its supporters for speaking up for fraternity and making known his commitment to constitutional ideals. He has contested the election in Karnataka as an independent candidate for the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency during the 2019 general elections, which he expectedly lost. He has often put his celebrity status to use to talk about politics and the rights of citizens. He was the special guest at The Wire Dialogues in Bangalore on August 6, discussing the most important F-word that India needs at the moment – Fraternity. You can watch it here.