The biggest thing that separates us Indians from the rest of the world is our deep-rooted sense of respect for culture and religion. Hurting the national, religious and/or cultural sentiments of any individual is not something Indian culture stands for.
Sadly, the same can not be said for the western world. Over the years, we have heard a number of stories of foreign companies disrespecting religious sentiments of people. Just a few weeks ago, a website was selling doormats with the Indian flag printed on it. The product got taken down after Sushma Swaraj interfered in the matter but another similar incident has recently popped up.
Two US-based online retailers are facing flak for hurting religious sentiments of Hindus by selling beer bottles bearing a picture of Ganesha and shoes with ‘Om’ symbol printed on them.
Two separate complaints have been lodged by an animal rights activist, Naresh Kadyan at Delhi’s Prashant Vihar police station against websites ‘lostcoast.com’ and ‘yeswevibe.com’ for the Ganesha picture and Om symbol respectively.
Kadyan has also written an official letter to the Ministry of External Affairs to register an FIR against the websites to remove said products from sale. DCP of Rohini district, MN Tiwari, said,
“The officers have been instructed to take necessary legal action against the complaint soon.”
The shoes are being sold at a price of $59.99. When Kadyan tried to contact the customer care service, they assured him to take the matter to their top officials.
Raveena, an activist working with Hindu Human Rights raised concerns over the growing trend of foreign brands using traditional and religious symbols for their own gains.
“This innocuous trend of using Hindu symbols on fashion or marketing accessories reveals the sellers’ insatiable greed for making profits.”
Let’s hope that the government takes a firm stand on such offenders this time and makes an example out of it so that we do not get to see more such news in the future.
News Source: India Today