BJP says ‘happy birthday, Stalin’ but in ‘his favourite language’ after ad row

The Chinese rocket ‘mistakenly’ put in an advertisement by the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government came to bite back Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin hard as the BJP Tamil Nadu on March 1 wished Stalin a happy birthday but in Mandarin, claiming that this is his favourite language. The social media handle of Tamil Nadu BJP also provided a ready draft of a Mandarin birthday wish for Stalin and urged everybody to use it if they want to wish Stalin on his birthday. on Friday.
The Mandarin wish said: Happy birthday Stalin! Wish you a long and healthy life — the BJP’s handle clarified as the post with its innovative way to take a dig at Stalin went viral.
The advertisement mistake snowballed into a BJP versus DMK issue after Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged the advertisement on February 28 as he laid the foundation stone for a new launch complex of ISRO at Kulasekarapattinam. “They have pasted the sticker of China to take credit for ISRO launchpad in Tamil Nadu. This is an insult to our space scientists, space sector, your tax money and you (the country),” Narendra Modi said. Modi made a social media post as well and said, “DMK’s advertisement today is hilarious. They have insulted Indian science and the Indian space sector, for which they must apologise.”
The apology did not come as DMK MP Kanimozhi asked whether India had declared China as an enemy country. Kanimozhi pointed out that Modi himself invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to India.
DMK minister Anitha Radhakrishnan accepted that it was a mistake that took place on the part of the designer and went unnoticed by everyone. “A small mistake has been made in the newspaper advertisement given by us regarding the setting up of a rocket launch pad in the Kulasekarapatnam area. The image of the Chinese flag in the advertisement welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a mistake by those who designed the advertisement, which went unnoticed by us,” said the DMK leader.