on Tuesday

Actor-filmmaker Prakash Raj knew Gauri Lankesh for over three decades. One of his closest friends, he rushed to Bengalurunight after the fateful shootout, to be by the side of the family. Prakash believes that his generation was taught to voice honest opinions and the intolerance that is seen today was something that one never dreamt of. He recounts his memories, while also pointing out the sad state of affairs today. "This is such nonsense. I knew Gauri for 30 years. In a sense, we were all children of (P) Lankesh, his ideologies and way of life. I never dreamt that this day would come. We were taught to be honest citizens, who would never seize to raise one's voice. In fact, I don't think anyone voiced their opinion more than P Lankesh himself. This was how we were taught to be. It is astonishing to see where we have come to today. One cannot imagine that this is how intolerant one can be. Where is the freedom of expression? Those who have done this have fled like cowards, attacking her in the dark. It shocks me to see how frightening these elements are. But what they don't realize is that silencing a voice will only make it stronger.Personally, Gauri's death is a big loss to me. I have very fond memories of her. We were together for a long time; we talked, debated and discussed many things, and have been there for each other during times of need. It is like losing family for me; it is very painful.It is left to the police to say who has killed her, but I think everyone already knows. For anyone who is secular today and wants to raises their voice, there are elements who want to muffle it. I think, in a way, if there is some way of doing justice to Gauri, it is to fight for what she fought for — never shying from raising a voice when something is wrong.There has been a lot of branding of Gauri after the incident, but everyone has their own agenda. What one fails to see is the soul behind all of this. Her agenda was to fight the nonsense in the system. She raised her voice whenever there was something wrong. She was against the establishment, but for a reason. I fail to understand why one has so much hatred that they want to eliminate a voice. She was someone who fought for something right. She never did anything for herself, only for the society. She continued the legacy of her father.We were a generation who grew up looking up to people like Lankesh, UR Ananthamurty and Poornachandra Tejaswi . I am a child of a healthy movement, in which there were people who stood up for things that were right and voiced their opinions. But no one stopped anyone from voicing his or her opinion. We have deteriorated into a society like this in many ways because of our own doing. Every single person is responsible for this, because it is we who have chosen the leaders today, supporting them to being in politics by religion and politics by money. We are helping them grow, and, unfortunately, this is the result. We need to step up and voice our dissent together. The media's support to this is commendable and I thank them for not bowing down to this act, which was to silence them in many ways."