God forbid!
The cover page of an American magazine, Newsweek, which shows Obama with six hands and standing on a leg has angered some Hindu rights group. They allege that the magazine has depicted Obama as Lord Shiva. Adding extra hands and making someone stand on single leg does not make them Lord Shiva. Its a mere symbolization and probably most Americans would be unaware of the fact that the symbolization was based on Lord Shiva.
It is not new for media houses to come under fire when they play with religious symbols and characters. Also it is not a rare phenomenon to see political leaders depicted as deities, at least in India, by over enthusiastic or attention seeking followers. But most of the time its the political leaders who face the ire when they are depicted as a deity. The most famous and the very first one I came across was of Tamil Nadu’s former chief minister Jayalalithaa. There was a huge uproar from both the Hindus and the Christian community back in the mid 90’s when she was depicted as Adhi Parashakthi (Parvathi) and Mother Mary. Later many such posters appeared and keeps appearing . Even the present Tamil Nadu chief minister Karunanidhi, an atheist, was depicted as Krishna and his son Stalin as Arjuna. Not to forget the latest one where Rahul Gandhi was depicted as Lord Krishna.
Almost every Indian politician must have taken an avatar for…, God knows why. But the list must be very long, here are few which I came across in recent times. And these obvious depiction would surly put Newsweek to shame!
Karunanidhi and his son Stalin as lord Krishna and Arjuna
