Tamil Nadu is no stranger to sycophantic poster art, most infamously centred on current chief minister J Jayalalithaa. Amma, as she is known, has been put on photoshopped posters being applauded by international leaders, literally residing inside the hearts of her followers, having US President Barack Obama bow down to her and even look like Lakshmi or the Madonna. But encouraging and cultivating all that sycophancy comes with a price: Crazy fans who will often miscalculate while attempting to show love for their dear leader.

Last year one man crucified himself for six and a half minutes to show his devotion for Amma, a move that didn't exactly draw condemnation from the leader of the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Now the photoshop poster artists have gone even further.

Just as Tamil Nadu's coasts are attempting to recover from the massive amount of water dumped on them from the skies over the last month, one local AIADMK leader has done what everyone in that party seems to do best. A photoshopped billboard combines Jayalalithaa's face with the famous poster of the film Baahubali, showing a hand holding a baby above a torrent of water.

The poster says that, after the deluge that the people have had to endure, Amma has single-handedly managed to save them from disaster. In the corner, it says the billboard was put up by S Muthukarappan, an MLA from Nellai, also known as Thirunelveli, a southern district, far from the rain-battered ones in on the coast.

Now that isn't the only photoshopped image of politicians from the last couple of days. On Thursday, the Press Information Bureau put out a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi surveying the damage in Chennai with a far-too-obvious bit of photoshopping.

The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, however, was not far behind.

  And news channels have taken the whole "ground-report-from-the-studio" tactic a little too far:



But this poster takes the cake because, unlike the Modi one, this would have cost money to edit and then even more to print and put up.

Considering the desperate need for donations to those who have been involved in volunteer relief operations for the hundreds of thousands who have been affected by the floods over the last couple of days, putting money into a billboard like this, particularly at a time when the government's ability to react to an extreme weather event has been questioned, seems not only misguided but obscene.



On the other side, the always reliable Subramanian Swamy, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, also had his two cents to add on the response of political supporters to the crisis.