Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday applauded Mangaluru-based Karan Acharya, a 29-year-old who designed the half vermilion-half black angry Hanuman sticker. Dubbed as the 'Angry Hanuman' it had become a regular on vehicles and smartphones across the country. Modi was speaking at the election rally in Karnataka when he praised the man who created the artwork. The sticker partly in orange and rest in black was designed by Acharya two years ago. Today, many prefer to keep it as display picture on their phones, stick it on rear windows of cars and even T-shirts with the caricature is popular.

Praising the artiste, Modi during his speech said, "I want to applaud artiste Karan Acharya whose Hanuman portrait has captured the 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."

The Hanuman artwork had earlier garnered criticisms for portraying a communal angle. Modi took the opportunity to also take on to the Congress saying, "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 Congress tried miring it in a controversy. There is no iota of democracy in the minds of the Congress members." He also hit at the Opposition saying that they don't deserve to rule Karnataka even for a day.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 06, 2018 06:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).