Indian Official Slams Ukrainian Defense Ministry for Caricaturating Indian Goddess Kali

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The caricature of Indian goddess Kali, published by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Sunday on a military "propaganda" poster, has caused discontent in India, and was later deleted without any apologies from the Ukrainian authorities, Kanchan Gupta, a senior adviser at the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, said.
Sputnik
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry published a photo of a column of smoke from an explosion and the collage of the blast combined with the image depicting the goddess, adding a caption which read "Work of art."

"Recently Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister [Emine Dzhaparova] was in Delhi soliciting support from India. Behind that fakery lurks the real face of Ukraine Govt. Indian goddess Ma Kali has been caricatured on a propaganda poster. This is an assault on Hindu sentiments around the world," Gupta tweeted.

The politician also said that "Ukraine's anti-India stance at UN remains unchanged."

"Ukraine continues with military deals with Pakistan. Ukraine has now mocked Goddess Kali in a manner no foreign Govt/country has ever done. This is brazen hate speech," Gupta added.

On April 10, Dzhaparova paid a visit to New Delhi and asked India to provide additional medical supplies and equipment to Ukraine. She met with the secretary of the foreign ministry's western department, Sanjay Verma, and Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi. The sides agreed to conduct the next round of talks between the foreign ministries in Kiev "on a mutually convenient date."