It has happened again. Over the years, international companies have been putting on sale toilet seats, shoes or underwears with Indian gods’ pictures on them. Liquor bottles or meat packets carry names or pictures of Indian gods or goddess. Similar attempts to insult and outrage Indians are made and yet there has been no violence on the issue.
And now a manufacturer, Mayers Flag Doormats, selling on Amazon Canada has put out a doormat with the Tricolour – the national flag of India – on them,. An American company followed by selling, again on Amazon USA, shoes with the Tricolour and Ashok Chakra on them.
By coincidence (?) these deliberate insults came just after the Supreme Court of India ordered that the National Anthem be played before every film show in the country and that all in the audience should stand in respect. It was a decision opposed by some like Majlis-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (MIM) leader Owaisi publicly and silently defied by many others simply because the pro-Hindutva BJP is ruling the country
The Indian External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj, issued a strong warning to Amazon saying no Indian visa will be issued to any Amazon official and that visas already issued would be rescinded. She also demanded an unconditional apology from Amazon. An apology has been reported late on January 12 evening..
It was only after the warning that the product has been taken off Amazon’s catalog. The sales continue. Sushma, still recovering from a kidney transplant but alert and helpful as ever, put out several tweets on Twitter. One said this was unacceptable and asked the Indian High Commission in Canada to take it up with Amazon..
Amazon must tender unconditional apology. They must withdraw all products insulting our national flag immediately.-Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) Jan. 11,’17
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If this is not done forthwith, we will not grant Indian Visa to any Amazon official. We will also rescind the Visas issued earlier. — Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj)
Mrs Swaraj has been using social medium Twitter proactively – to get distress calls from Indians abroad and to help people. Her bold actions stand in sharp contrast with those of the former UPA government, where the Prime Minister was being used as a doormat by a foreign-born lady to wield power without responsibility.
No wonder, therefore, political parties eying communal vote-banks – like Congress, JD(U) and Trinamool did not protests against the doormats.
Sushma had tweeted to ensure Pakistani girls stranded in India reached home, saying the girls were everyone’s daughters, not just Pakistanis. But in sharp contrast there was glee in Pakistan over the insult to Indian National Flag.
A Pakistani website, defence.pk proclaimed that India liked being outraged and that the only protests against the doormats came from Indians. To make it look not communal the post was from a person named Bose.
Protests against the doormats were posted on January 8 – days after the Amazon website put up them up for sale. If Sushma Swaraj had not tweeted Indians would not have even known about it — leave aside violently protesting
The Pakistani website noted: ” A ‘change.org’ petition was started, asking Amazon to remove the product from the site. The petition has already garnered support from 2,747 people. The “petition aims to start a campaign to force Amazon.ca to apologize and remove such products from their catalog.”
“Amazon Canada has not responded to the comments. In fact, the product, sold by is still listed on the site,” Bose wrote.
She said flags of other countries were also used by the company. She did not bother to research and list how many doormats or toilet seats bore pictures of Jesus, Pope, Abraham Lincoln or, in the southern states of USA, of Martin Luther King.
———————–THE PAKISTANI WEBSITE—————————-
Only Indians Were Outraged That Amazon Is Selling Doormats With National Flags Printed On Them
Keep calm? What’s that?
11/01/2017 7:51 PM IST | Updated 45 minutes ago
By Adrija Bose Social Media Editor
———————————————————————-Google also shows a story with same headline in the online daily, Huffington Post, which has an Indian edition with substantial readership. When clicked, however, the page was ‘not available’. It was perhaps deleted after protests.
Insulting Indian gods, culture and nationalism has been an old game played by foreign companies, perhaps to win wide publicity and also get the patronage of anti-Indian communities. Canada has been the main centre of the Khalistani terrorists and has a very large Punjabi population.
Even an unintended ‘insult’ to anything Islamic like the Holy Quran, or pictures or cartoons of the Prophet touch off extreme violence. In the 80s the office of a Bangalore newspaper was burnt down and heavy damage inflicted for publishing a story – by a Muslim writer- which contained nothing against Islam, simply because the protagonist in the story, who was a moron, was named Mohammad. Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are notoriously used against minorities.
The industry of insulting India grows; yet some say India is becoming intolerant
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Umm sir sorry to disagree, but you’re making this a whole other issue! People who buy products with Indian flag don’t wish to waste their money and burn them. They like the Indian Flag and the tri color and want to either wear it or decorate their houses with it. I’m sure a terrorist organization is not sitting and manufacturing these products so people can buy them and then disrespect them. No person buying things on Amazon will buy the doormat just so that it can step on it and disrespect in everyday, there are cheaper ways to disrespect it if they want to. You are definitely entitled to your opinion, but making everything an issue of India-pakistan, India-vs the West is ridiculous. You have ended your blog with blaming some muslim writer and the Islam! Why such hate? How is the sale of doormat linked to Muslims and Pakistanis. it is true India is the only one so terribly offended by these doormats, while thousand of sellers are selling slippers, stickers, and under wears of countries like Canada and USA. Request you not create unnecessary hatred with such articles. Hope this is taken in the positive light.