'Preview of BJP's Plan To Saffronize....': Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin On Doordarshan's New Logo

New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party over the change in logo of public broadcaster Doordarshan, from red to orange, and dubbed it was a 'precursor' to the BJP's 'conspiracy' of saffronising everything.

Taking on microblogging site 'X', DMK leader wrote, "Doordarshan has been given a saffron stain". "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.

In his post Stalin recalled that earlier Tamil saint-poet Tiruvalluvar was "saffronised" and added that "saffron paint was poured on statues of great leaders of Tamil Nadu."

The national broadcaster, Doordarshan announced the changes in its historic flagship logo from red to shade of orange on April 16 which sparked the controversy. Bitter political row has erupted over the alleged ''saffronisation'' of the national broadcaster with the opposition parties attacking the Narendra Modi regime over the change in the colour of the DD's logo. 

In response to the opposition criticism, Prasar Bharati CEO Gaurav Dwivedi clarified that the new DD logo has “a catchy orange colour, not saffron”. "It is not just the logo that we have changed, the entire look and feel has been upgraded. It is incorrect and unfortunate that people are reading more into this. We were working on changing the look and feel of DD for the past six to eight months," he told reporters.

While the national broadcaster changed the colour of its logo to blue, yellow and red in recent years, the two petals and globe at the centre of the logo have remained intact.