Cartoon slamming Modi: Centre allegedly blocks Tamil weekly site

Chennai: The BJP-led Centre allegedly blocked Tamil weekly Vikatan’s website after it published a cartoon of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which a sad, shackled Modi sits next to a laughing Donald Trump, the President of the United States, The New Indian Express reported.

The Tamil Weekly’s website was reportedly inaccessible from Saturday, hours after BJP’s Tamil Nadu chief K Annamalai complained to the Press Council of India (PCI) and the Union government over the cartoon.

The weekly wrote a post on X late on Saturday night saying that several news outlets were reporting its website was blocked, but it had not received any official notification from the Union government.

The post read, “Vikatan has stood in support of freedom of expression for a century. In case the site has been blocked by the centre because of the cartoon, we will fight it legally.”

Following this, the Chennai Press Club condemned the incident in a statement and added that it would stand with Vikatan. It was in Vikatan’s Feb 13 issue that the mentioned cartoon, in which Modi could be seen handcuffed, was published. The cartoon depicted the inhuman deportation of illegal Indian immigrants from the US in handcuffs, which had given rise to scathing reactions across the nation.

Also, there is widespread outcry against the PM not expressing his disapproval before Trump over Indian illegal immigrants being shackled as well as made to suffer by other means in a US plane.

The cartoon irked the BJP, and Annamalai proceeded with complaints, urging action against the magazine. The Tamil Nadu BJP chief claimed that the cartoon had deliberate intentions to tarnish the diplomatic significance of PM Modi’s visit to the US. He also claimed that it attempted to appease the state DMK government. He further claimed that such depictions violate journalistic ethics and urged the ministry to initiate suitable action against the magazine.