Amazon takes down product after alleged insult to Indian flag

Amazon.com removed doormats which resembled the Indian flag from its Canadian website as the move infuriated many Indians and even got the company a warning from the Indian Foreign Minister.

The product was taken down from the website on Wednesday but only after Sushma Swaraj, India’s foreign minister, threatened Amazon to rescind visas of the company’s employees if they did not immediately stop selling the doormats.

“Amazon must tender unconditional apology,” external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter. “They must withdraw all products insulting our national flag immediately.”

“If this is not done forthwith, we will not grant Indian Visa to any Amazon official,” she added. “We will also rescind the Visas issued earlier.”

This is not the first time that the company sold doormats resembling other country’s flags. Amazon’s portal in Canada sells doormats designed around other national flags as well but in India, any insult to the national flag is punishable with fines and even imprisonment.

“The item is no longer available for sale on the site,” a spokesperson for Amazon said in an email. An apology was not issued to India for selling the item.

Meanwhile Amazon’s official support account on Twitter has also been bombarded with comments from angry users over the desecration of the Indian flag. Amazon responded by saying that the mats were not being sold on their Indian portal and that the concerns had been escalated.

Meanwhile Swaraj tweeted that she had asked the Indian High Commission in Canada to escalate the issue to the higher-ups in Amazon. Swaraj was made aware of the issue after it was brought to her attention by a Twitter user from Mumbai.

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Posted by fatimaarshad on Jan 12 2017. Filed under Latest News, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.