Padma Sri for Garikapati; Chinmayi stirs a discussion

The central government announced the Padma award winners for this year and many prominent personalities from the Telugu states found their names on it. The most famous Sahasra Avadhani Garikapati Narasimha Rao was conferred the Padma Shri award in the literature category, for his contribution to society for his lectures and speeches on personality development, and Hindu culture. However, there are a few people who are questioning the worth.

Garikapati Narasimha Rao regularly discusses Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Bhagavadgita, and other holy scriptures to elevate and promote the Hindu culture. He often adds real-life examples with a pinch of sarcasm and comedy. The people from different age groups are his fans and followers.

In one of his earlier videos, Garikapati argues that men cannot control themselves when they see women display their firm body parts openly. Discussing the topic Rape, Garikapati made these comments. People like Chinmayi have found fault with the same. Earlier, she shared the video and argued that his preachings are wrong. With Garikapati being conferred with the Padma award, the video surfaced again and Chinmayi shared it on her Instagram to share her thoughts.

She also shared a video of Garikapati and wrote, “He supposedly says even he cannot control himself at his age when he sees women dressed a certain way. How could younger boys be expected to do it?”

“I ended up getting a lot more content where Garikapati has gone on and on about actresses, a lady he saw at an airport with long hair and flowers so he decided to compose a ‘padyam’ ‘aavida sri varu pakkanunnaro ledho teliyadhu kaani…” he goes on :). I dont see why I should share the way he’s gone on about how he isn’t able to control himself at his age. Anyway, it shows the kinda men, other men respect. Women clearly have woken up to this.” she wrote.

Chinmayi also shared screenshots of his videos where he spoke about women’s dressing and hairstyles. She also shared a screenshot of his video where he spoke about those who eat Pani Puri. She shared a series of other videos including one where Garikapati talks about when a couple should have sex.

“Men of religion say whatever the heck they want because they have a captive audience and eventually their misogyny, rape culture, body shaming, everything comes to the fore. Because of the soft power these men have entire families follow and think of him as great. What I shared is for the women. Of the younger generation. Identify that these are problematic ideas. And the people. And keep far away.” she wrote.

She concluded by saying, “As usual all the hate / abusive tweets and comments are from the men. And all the women are damm pissed that their family members listen to this man. Anyway, this abusive lot is unnecessary, useless and irrelevant. Just remember that anyone having such views is problematic.”

A lot of netizens are trolling and abusing Chinmayi for finding fault with Garikapati’s videos and him getting the prestigious award.