One of the worst things about the modern era is the emergence of ‘celebrity’ culture. The rise of this culture is bringing down the IQ level of society as a whole. A huge number of people worship these celebrities as gods. These followers blindly believe and follow anything and everything which their ‘celebrity star’ says. Never have these celebrities enjoyed so much influence in the society as they enjoy today. In ancient times, the roles of all these celebrities- actors, singers, comedians, dancers, producers etc- was confined to only entertain people with their limited skills and do whatever their ruler commands them to do.

Celebrities nowadays have become self-appointed moral guardians of society. They strongly believe that their approval is necessary for the government or people for doing anything. Now, they give sermons on religion, geopolitics, diplomacy, politics that too without having an iota of understanding about any of the subject or issue. They exploit their celebrity status to impart their limited viewpoints on people on how to celebrate festivals, which God should be worshipped and which God should be condemned, what is good and what is evil etc. Because of the huge fan following on FB, Twitter, Instagram etc these celebrities start suffering an exaggerated sense of self-importance.

Prakash Raj is one such celebrity who has been called out repeatedly for his nonsense view on issues which are beyond his understanding but still this attention seeker comes up with more absurd opinion then the previous one, every time. After the thorough humiliation at the hands of Subramanian Swamy, Prakash Raj has emerged in the public again this time to sermonize on an issue of faith that has led to unprecedented Hindu unity in the communist bastion, Kerala. With respect to the ongoing Sabarimala Temple row, Prakash Raj said, “Any religion which asks women not to worship is not a religion to me. Any God who does not want my mother to worship is not God to me.” He further ranted, “If every one of us believes that we were given birth women and if you call the Earth as Mother Earth if she wants to worship, let her do it. Or you take her to do it. Any religion which asks a woman, my mother, to worship is not a religion to me. Any bhakt, who will stop my mother from worshipping is not a bhakt to me and any God who doesn’t want my mother to worship him is not God to me (sic.)”

First of all, Prakash Raj has admitted that he is a non-believer and his mother is a strong Roman Catholic woman then why is he displaying this much interest in Sabarimala temple issue? Prakash Raj would also not be allowed to enter into the Sabarimala temple as he is not a true devotee of Bhagwan Ayyappa, only true devotees of temple’s deity do the Sabarimala pilgrimage. As far as her mother is concerned, she is a Roman Catholic so it won’t make any difference whether she visits the temple or not.

His views show that he is completely uneducated about Bhagwan Ayyappa. The deity of Sabarimala Temple does allow women to see him after they reach 50. Lakhs of women in Kerala be it mothers, wives, sisters carried out #Readytowait campaign as a mark of protest against the attack on the age old custom. Women devotees of Bhagwan Ayyappa are willing to wait until 50. Prakash Raj, like most of his comrades has miniscule knowledge of Hinduism and India but goes on a sermonizing spree, time and again against anyone and everyone who shares any proximity to the word Hindu. Subramanian Swamy exposed the intellectually bankruptcy of Prakash Raj in a debate. That debate was an epic disaster for the ill-equipped ‘villain’ from the silver screen as Subramanian Swamy was in top form.

The debate was full of tall claims without any backing made by the TV personality, the response to which came in the form of hard-hitting, fact based replies of Subramanian Swamy. On the other hand, when Swamy levied accusations on Prakash Raj and his ilk, the only response Prakash had was “kuch bhi”. The same response of Prakash Raj could be used to answer all of the rant that he, along with his comrades, makes against Hinduism and its traditions.

Since that debate, media and his cabal started ignoring him and now he is making sensational statements to attract media attention and to remain relevant. However, in his pursuit to get media attention, he ended up insulting the devotees of Bhagwan Ayyappa and has also undermined the just struggle of millions of Hindus who are trying to protect the sanctity of the temple from Atheistic invasion. His remarks came at a time when Communist state has begun a massive crackdown on the protesting devotees and his remarks are bound to provide a sense of legitimacy to this crackdown.