Pakistan uses Indian Warships for its ads

The Indian and Pakistani Armed Forces have a strange love affair.  The Governments don’t seem to get enough of each other when they are advertising themselves.  Remember when Indian Government was advertising for the campaign on Girl Child – the “anti-Female Infanticide” program?  Along with the other pictures, our Government put in the picture of Former Air Force chief of Pakistan Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed.  While it embarrassed Dr. Singh and his Government, it appropriately amused Ahmed as he brushed it off nicely by saying:

“I guess it’s just one of those errors. It must be an innocent mistake,”

WIthini the Government there was some difference of opinion. While the Prime Minister’s Office profusely apologized:

“The Prime Minister’s Office has noted with regret the inclusion of a foreign national’s photograph in a Government of India advertisement. While an internal enquiry has been instituted, the PMO apologises to the public for this lapse.”

Minister for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath, on the other hand, was hardly regretting.  She wanted people to look at the “big picture” as she said:

“message is more important than the image. The photograph is only symbolic. The message for the girl child is more important. She should be protected.”

Now, its the turn of Pakistan to pay us back.  Its Navy came out with a full-page advertisement for the Aman-11 exercise in The Nation and Nawa-e-Waqt newspapers with nice looking ships to show off their prowess.  Only the ships in the photograph weren’t theirs.  Instead, they were Indian Navy’s Delhi, Godavari and Talwar-class warships.  Hardly an advertisement of their power, is it?

The Original image was from Indo-US Naval Exercise, of Malabar 2010.  The faux pas was caught by the Pakistani blogger Shahid Saeed

Pakistani Ads in “The Nation” and “Nawa-e-Waqt”: (Click on the images for larger view)

And the Original picture: