TN Minister draws flak over ad having image of rocket with Chinese flag

Thoothukudi: Tamil Nadu Minister for Fisheries Anitha R.Radhakrishnan has drawn flak for his advertisement in Tamil media having an image of a rocket with a Chinese flag on its nose cone along with the pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister M.K.Stalin on Wednesday.

Mr.Radhakrishnan, who is representing the Tiruchendur assembly constituency rolled out an advertisement on Wednesday in the local Tamil newspapers about the inauguration event of laying foundation stone for the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) second spaceport by Modi coming up at Kulasekarapattinam in Thoothukudi district.

The Tamil advertisement carrying the pictures of the Prime Minister and Stalin has rockets in the backdrop. One of the rocket images had a Chinese flag on its nose cone and another rocket image had Chinese letters stoked a controversy.

Modi hit out at the DMK over this.

The PM, while addressing a public rally in Tirunelveli this afternoon after laying the foundation stone for the second spaceport, made a scathing attack on DMK by stating that the latter is such a party which doesn’t do any work, but are ready to take the false credit.

“Who doesn’t know that these people (DMK) put their stickers on our (Centre) schemes?" he said.

Modi said, now they (DMK) have crossed the limit. They have pasted stickers of China to take credit for the ISRO launch pad in Tamil Nadu. They are not ready to see the progress of India’s space technology and with the taxes that you pay, they have given advertisements and do not even include a picture of India’s space in it.

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DMK’s advertisement today is hilarious. They have insulted Indian science and the Indian space sector, for which they must apologise. pic.twitter.com/RwghHNji7q

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 28, 2024 >

They did not want to share our country’s space success in front of the World. They insulted our scientists, our space sector, your tax money. Now the time has come to punish the DMK, the PM said.

Tamil Nadu BJP President K.Annamalai, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) said this advertisement by DMK Minister Anitha Radhakrishnan to leading Tamil dailies today is a manifestation of DMK’s commitment to China and their total disregard for our country’s sovereignty.

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This advertisement by DMK Minister Thiru Anita Radhakrishnan to leading Tamil dailies today is a manifestation of DMK’s commitment to China & their total disregard for our country’s sovereignty.

DMK, a party flighing high on corruption, has been desperate to paste stickers ever… pic.twitter.com/g6CeTzd9TZ

— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) February 28, 2024 >

The DMK, a party flying high on corruption, has been desperate to paste stickers ever since the announcement of ISRO’s launch pad in Kulasekarapattinam was released. The amount of desperation only proves their attempt to bury their past misdeeds, but we must remind them that DMK was why the Satish Dhawan Space Centre is today in Andhra Pradesh and not Tamil Nadu.

When the first launch pad of ISRO was conceptualised, Tamil Nadu was the first choice of ISRO. Then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Thiru Annadurai, who could not attend the meeting because of severe shoulder pain, deputed one of his Ministers Mathiyazhagan for the meeting.

ISRO officials were kept waiting for a long time, and Mathiyazhagan was finally brought to the meeting in an inebriated state and was incoherent throughout the meeting.

And this was the treatment our country’s space programme received 60 years ago. DMK has not changed much and has only become worse, he said.