3 min readChennaiMar 4, 2024 07:59 AM IST
First published on: Mar 1, 2024 at 04:13 PM IST
The BJP on Friday took a dig at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin by wishing him in Mandarin on his 71st birthday on X (formerly Twitter).
“On behalf of @BJP4TamilNadu, here’s wishing our Honourable CM Thiru @mkstalin avargal a happy birthday in his favourite language! May he live a long and healthy life!” the caption to the post reads.
This comes a couple of days after a newspaper advertisement to mark the launch of India’s second spaceport at Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu carried the image of a rocket with a Chinese flag.
The advertisement was commissioned by TN Fisheries Minister Anitha Radhakrishnan in his personal capacity to highlight the role of DMK leaders including the Late M Karunanidhi, CM Stalin, and Thoothukudi MP K Kanimozhi in bringing the project to the state.
Following the BJP’s criticism, the DMK minister downplayed the entire incident and said it was a small mistake on the part of the designer.
“We have no other intention. We have only love for India in our hearts,” Radhakrishnan said.
PM Modi, who laid the foundation stone of the project, was quick to pounce on the issue during a rally in Tirunelveli. He said the DMK does not work but “takes false credit and affixes its stickers on central schemes”.
“Now they have crossed the limit. They have pasted the sticker of China to take credit for the ISRO Launchpad in Tamil Nadu. This is an insult to our space scientists,” Modi added.
Later, the PM posted on X, “They have insulted Indian science and the Indian space sector, for which they must apologise.”
Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai said the advertisement is a manifestation of the DMK’s commitment to China and their total disregard for the country’s sovereignty.
“The amount of desperation only proves their attempt to bury their past misdeeds, but we must remind them that DMK was why the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre is today in Andhra Pradesh and not Tamil Nadu,” Annamalai wrote on X.
The DMK shot back at the BJP’s criticism with DMK MP P Wilson hinting at Chinese incursion in Ladakh, among others. He remarked that the prime minister can see the Chinese flag in a newspaper advertisement but has turned a blind eye to reports of the Chinese flag being unfurled in Indian territory in the past 10 years.
The BJP post on X wishing Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin a happy birthday. (Photo: BJP Tamil Nadu/ X) 
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