BHEEMAVARAM: Padma Shri awardee (2022) and popular ‘Pravachana kartha’ Garikapati Narasimha Rao was forced to apologize to the Viswabrahmin community particularly the goldsmiths in concern, for making comments about them in an old discourse video.

As per reports Garikapati Narasimha Rao who was in Bheemavaram, West Godavari district on Friday for a program, faced the ire of the gold smiths associations there. On Friday, the Viswabrahmins held a rally in Bheemavaram and staged protests in front of the Jangareddygudem police station. They complained to the police that Garikapati had to apologize to them. The jewelers took to the road and staged protests and warned that there would be district-wide agitations if he did not come forward and apologize. The police reached Prakasam Chowk and tried to pacify them but they staged a sit-in there. Later Garikapati finally relented, came forward and held talks with the leaders of the Viswabrahmin community there and publicly apologized to them if he had spoken wrongly about them.

Garikapati Narasimha Rao had participated in a TV program in the year 2006 by a leading channel. He allegedly made some deprecating remarks about the Viswabrahmins engaged in the goldsmith profession during this program. Since then they were demanding an apology from him to take back those remarks and apologize.

Garijapati has often been making disparaging remarks, especially about how women should behave and what they should wear which are sometimes quite regressive. Singer Chinmayee Sripada also shared and commented about his videos where he spoke about rape, women’s dressing, and hairstyles. In another video, he defends the caste system by Manusmriti and that because of the system it ensured there was no unemployment in the society. He terms caste as a ‘result of karma of the previous birth'.

Recently Garikapati also expressed outrage over Allu Arjun’s Pushpa- The Rise movie and questioned the director for glorifying a smuggler as a real hero, in a TV interview. “If I ever meet the director or the actor, I will confront them about the film,” he said in a recent TV interview.

Also Read: What Are Padma Awards and Who Confers Them