How BJP MLA's edited pic of CM Pinarayi and PM Modi has spurred a meme war in Kerala

One meme shows the PM holding the umbrella for the Ambani brothers, Baba Ramdev and bank defaulters like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi.

Meme wars

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On April 17, Ashin Munnu, an artist based out of Kerala, published a digital portrait that went viral. The painting showed Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan holding an umbrella, with Health Minister KK Shailaja standing next to him. It's raining but the umbrella held by the Chief Minister protects doctors, healthcare workers, police and the general public, all of whom are depicted in the portrait. Ashin had captioned the picture ‘Oru Kudayil Oruma’ or ‘Unity under an umbrella’ to symbolise the Kerala government’s efforts to keep the pandemic at bay and ensure that people are not left stranded or hungry.

A few days later, BJP’s lone MLA in Kerala, O Rajagopal, posted the same portrait, but with a major change. The picture the MLA posted showed Prime Minister Modi towering over Pinarayi Vijayan and holding a saffron coloured umbrella that covers the Kerala CM and everyone else and called it ‘Oru Kudakeezhil’ or under an umbrella.

Original portrait

Edited one

Ashin was understandably upset at the manipulation of his picture and has expressed his anger on his social media handles. However, what O Rajagopal’s act has done is to spur a meme war, one that is surely keeping Kerala entertained. Most of the memes have come up on ‘International Chalu Union’, Kerala’s most popular meme page on Facebook and other popular pages like Troll Malayalam.

One meme shows the PM holding the umbrella for the Ambani brothers, Baba Ramdev and bank defaulters like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi.

One of the most popular memes shows Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala on a bike, splashing muddy water on Modi and Pinarayi. Ramesh Chennithala has been engaged in a shrill battle with the Pinarayi government after he highlighted that an American company called Sprinklr was in charge of handling COVID-19 data in the state.

There are more memes with Chennithala as the protagonist/ antagonist. One shows Chennithala holding a shamiana over Modi and Pinarayi's heads!

If Chennithala can be the hero in a meme, then Congress leader and former CM Oommen Chandy cannot be left behind. There are many memes that have Chandy as the man with the biggest umbrella.

The faction war in the Congress also featured in memes where Chandy tries to upstage Chenntithala.

Factions are legendary in Kerala Congress. Oommen Chandy, the former CM, was soon in the picture with a shamiana over the tent.
8/n pic.twitter.com/Xj5hjadLoI
— Varun Santhosh (@santvarun) May 1, 2020

Tamil actor Vijay has also become the saviour in a few memes.

The following meme is based on the popular Malayalam comedy Midhunam, in which Mohanlal and Urvashi play lovers who elope and get married. In this scene, Mohanlal and Sreenivasan carry Urvashi in a rolled up mat from her house, while her brother played by Janardhanan follows them. Though Mohanlal and Sreenivasan (here Pinarayi and Shailaja Teacher) do all the hard work, Janardhanan (Modi) takes credit for their elopement (because he was sick of waiting for them to get married -- but that isn’t relevant here!).

Eventually, the meme fest became an explosion, with the PM holding an umbrella becoming the centre of the joke.

Meme War

How BJP MLA's edited pic of CM Pinarayi and PM Modi has spurred a meme war in Kerala

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