MANGALURU: Prime Minister

catapulted city-based artiste

’s popularity to a higher orbit on Saturday even as the jam-packed crowd at the

here cheered for the 29-year-old’s talent.

Acharya’s angry half-vermilion half-black image of

Hanuman

had created a rage across the country. The image attained such popularity that two years later, it continues to adorn smartphones as display picture while it is a preferred choice of the youth across the country on the windshields, T-Shirts and rear windows of their automobiles.

“I want to applaud artist Karan Acharya whose Hanuman portrait has captured imagination of people across India. This is a laudable achievement and is the power of his achievement, talent and imagination. This is the pride of Mangaluru. All TV channels queued up for his interview,”

said in Mangaluru.

However, the vector image had not gone down well with a section of the political arena which painted it a communal angle, Modi said.

Recalling this, Modi did not mince words to slam the Congress. “The Congress’ ecosystem doesn’t even tolerate the magnificent art of Karan Acharya whose Hanuman captured the imagination of the entire country. Unable to digest its success, the

tried miring it in a controversy. There is no iota of democracy in the minds of the Congress members,” Modi said, and added that such a party does not deserve to rule

even for a day.

Twiiterati, too, was quick enough to come in support of this iconic art and Modi. “The liberals will now intensify their campaign against ‘angry Hanuman’ and hard-line Hindutva of Modi #BreakingBangles (sic),” a Twitter user said.