DMK president and Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin on Sunday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Central government’s decision to change the colour of the logo of national broadcaster Doordarshan from red to orange, claiming the BJP was conspiring to ‘saffronise’ everything. He said the Lok Sabha elections’ results will show that the people have risen up against “such fascism”.“These (steps like logo change) are a precursor to that. The 2024 Lok Sabha election outcome will show the public rising up against such fascism,” he added.
MK Stalin claimed that Tamil saint poet Tiruvalluvar was “saffronised”.
“Saffron paint was poured on statues of great leaders of Tamil Nadu,” he wrote in the Tamil post.
Earlier, the Opposition called the logo change grossly illegal, saying it reflected a pro-BJP bias.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had said that the change in the colour of the logo was unethical.
I am shocked at the sudden saffronisation and change of colour of our Doordarshan logo when the national elections are taking place across the country! It is absolutely unethical, grossly illegal, and speaks loudly of the pro-BJP bias of the national public broadcaster, the Trinamool Congress leader had said in a post on X.
Later, information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur took a jibe at Mamata Banerjee, saying her love for “saffron” was “publicly known”.
BJP leader Amit Malviya had said the orange logo was first launched in 1982. He said India got colour TV in 1982 and Doordarshan became the national broadcaster the same year.
“This is how it was launched. Saffron. We just reclaimed it,” he wrote on X.