Chennai: Ahead of Chess Olympiad, row over ‘missing’ Modi in posters

Chennai: Ahead of the 44th International Chess Olympiad to be hosted at Mamallapuram near Chennai, a row erupted over Prime Minister Narendra Modi not being featured in the publicity materials.

The Tamil Nadu Government has put up flex banners and billboards at various locations publicising the Chess Olympiad, which will be inaugurated by Modi on Thursday. The billboards prominently featured Tamil heritage sites, the dhoti-clad Thambi the Knight (mascot of the event) and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin.

On Wednesday, State BJP (Sports and Skill Development) president Amar Prasad Reddy went around pasting the image of the Prime Minister on the billboards. “No one knows Stalin beyond Gummidipoondi (Tamil Nadu-Andhra border). Modi is the only representative of India. The State Government has blacked him out so we are pasting his photos,” he said in a video that went viral.

Following this in the afternoon, a functionary of the Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam, a rationalist outfit, went around spraying black paint defacing Modi’s images, which were pasted by the BJP. The police detained the youth.

Meanwhile, the hashtag #GoBackModi was trending on Twitter. The ruling DMK, which had participated in a protest against Modi while in the opposition, distanced itself from the hashtag. Last time when the Prime Minister visited Chennai, alongside this hashtag, #TamilNaduWelcomesModi and #VanakkamModi had trended on the microblogging site.

Published on: Wednesday, July 27, 2022, 07:46 PM IST