Argentine News Outlet Uses Image of Apu to Announce Arrival of Indian Prime Minister Modi at G20

Aidan McLaughlinNov 30th, 2018, 4:48 pm

Argentine news channel Cronica TV used an image of Simpsons character Apu to announce the arrival of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Buenos Aires for the G20 summit on Thursday, sparking outrage.

Besides a shot of Modi’s plane landing, an image of the character was displayed with a graphic declaring “Apu arrives.”

The graphic was caught and posted on social media by an Argentine reporter:

Argentine TV outlet @CronicaTV displays this racist image with the headline “Apu Arrived” as India Prime Minister @narendramodi arrives in Buenos Aires for the #G20. pic.twitter.com/oNqZVpS4E5

— Patrick Gillespie (@Pat_Gillespie) November 29, 2018

The graphic naturally drew outrage on social media. BBC correspondent Rajini Vaidyanathan called it “astonishing, ridiculous and racist.”

This is quite astonishing, ridiculous and racist. #Modi‘s arrival at the G20 summit ‘announced with Apu meme’ https://t.co/bIYgtoqilW

— Rajini Vaidyanathan (@BBCRajiniV) November 30, 2018

Others joined in condemning the network:

Horrible. In line with TN TV anchor that justifies the band confused Chinese leader Xi Jinping with somebody else arguing that “all Chinese look alike, pretty hard to distinguish” https://t.co/8vYRz41fH5 https://t.co/V23HIMel4b

— Pablo González (@Pablo_Rosendo) November 30, 2018

This couldn’t be true, right? https://t.co/xiEzNgpXip

— Hari Kondabolu (@harikondabolu) November 30, 2018

Very dissapointed to see this from @CronicaTV .He is the prime minister of our country and in your attempt of humour you have stereotyped and lowered the image of the post of PM and the country. #ApuArrived https://t.co/kuOO5GwoVo

— Pradyot_Tripura (@PradyotManikya) November 30, 2018