If We Let It Go, We Won’t Survive: Prakash Raj On Totalitarianism
Speaking at the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) 2025, actor Prakash Raj shared his insight on the totalitarianism that happened to be plagued the country in some way or the other, and said “if we let it go, we won’t survive”. He said that the “fight has begun”. The actor said he is seeing changes everywhere when compared to what was the situation 10 years before.
While speaking at ‘The Silencing Of Art’ session with K K Shahina, Prakash said he finds resilience and hope growing. He made his point clear by shooting several questions.
“Don’t you see protest going up? Don’t you see people are becoming more bolder? Don’t you see they have pulled one step back?”
Commenting on the ruling party, which was dubbed as authoritarian, Prakash said, “Now it’s not just the propaganda winning, but they are trying see other ways. Like tampering with voting”.
Hinting at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dip in vote margin in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, he said, “Don’t you see Narendra Modi, who won with five lakhs of vote margin (in the 2014 Lok Sabha election), this time it was it was only one and half lakh votes”.
Prakash also mentioned comedian Shyam Rangeela, who was denied opportunity to run against PM Modi in his constituency Varanasi. He said, “He (PM Modi) was afraid about a comedian”.
“Seeing how much KLF has grown in the past few years”, Prakash Raj said he sees hope. He also mentioned filmmaker Mani Ratnam, who was at KLF the day before, has shared that he wish such festivals happen in Tamil Nadu also, so that youngsters could come up and ask questions.
Prakash said while there may not be protests visible, there sure is resilience in its own form. He further added that by letting to, the totalitarianism will only suffocate, the country will not be able to survive. “It is very suffocating. The youth are getting suffocated by the joblessness. The middle class is getting suffocated with the taxes”, he added.
Prakash said that the fact that BJP did not win a single seat in Ayodhya, where the much celebrated Ram Mandir was built, indicates that the “fight has begun. I find hope there”.
