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Nazi-Like Propaganda? Ukraine's Ministry Of Defense Celebrates Strike In Crimea With Post Caricaturing Devi Kali
The now-deleted post from the Ukraine Ministry of Defense. The caricature of Devi Kali has been blurred by Swarajya.
'Defense of Ukraine', (@DefenceU), which is the official Twitter page of the Ministry of Defense in Ukraine today posted an image which raises serious questions about what the Ukraine government thinks about Indians, and especially Hindus.
In a tweet now deleted, the @DefenceU handle had posted two images side by side.
The first image was of a massive cloud of smoke caused by fuel tank fire in the city of Sevastopol, in Crimea. Crimea, an erstwhile Ukrainian territory was included by Russia in its borders in 2014.
According to reports, the fire was caused by a drone strike.
In order to celebrate the damage caused in Russian territory, along with the actual image of the fire, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry also tweeted a graphically modified version of the original picture.
In this, the cloud of smoke is made to look like a skirt lifting up due to wind with a woman trying to keep it down, like American actress Marilyn Monroe's famous pose.
In this image though, the character resembles Devi Kali, with blue complexion, outstretched tongue and with her wearing a necklace of skulls.
The images were accompanied by a single-line tweet—"Work of art".
The post was criticised by many in Indian Twitter and was eventually deleted.
Even so, the post raises serious questions about the sentiments and sensibilities of the Ukrainian government regarding India.
Such a mockery of Hinduism also gives strength to the argument that the current Ukrainian government is driven by Nazi ideas. Casual, public and unprovoked humiliation of another culture is recorded to be a regular feature of the Nazi regime.
In the current case as well, the mockery of Devi Kali was all three—casual, unprovoked, and public.
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