Readers tell us whether they support Sushma Swaraj for stepping up the fight against Amazon
Amazon.com was forced to remove doormats with the Indian flag embossed on them from its Canadian website after a much-livid foreign minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday threatened to refuse visas to the e-tailer's officials and withdraw visas already given to its employees.
Swaraj also demanded an unconditional apology from Amazon after the matter was brought to her attention by a Twitter user. She immediately tweeted:
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) January 11, 2017
While disrespect to the national flag is a punishable offence in India and involves a three-year jail term and a fine or both, flag-printed merchandise, including underwear, shoes and doormats, are rather common and legal in most other countries. In fact, the Amazon Canada site still has flags of various countries, including Canada, available as designs on doormats.
Swaraj, who in the recent past has earned a lot of praise for being active on social media to help Indians abroad, also tweeted to the Indian Embassy in Canada, directing them to take the matter up with Amazon officials at the "highest level".
But even before it was brought to Swaraj's notice, the matter was taken up by some Indians living abroad with a petition on change.org. They were enraged and said the product was a "clear insult to more than 1.25 billion Indians living across the world".
Even though Amazon has pulled the product from its website, many felt the foreign minister overreacted this time by stepping up the fight against the e-tailer with visa threat. When we asked our readers what they feel about the issue and whether they support Swaraj's reaction, they came up with an overwhelming response. Read on:
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DailyO readers weigh in.
Peter Roshan: I support Sushma Swaraj. Our freedom is hard-earned. So treating our national flag as doormat is an insult to us. Amazon must apologise for its stupidity.
Virendra Anand: People should support her. Unlike the UK or the US, India has not come to a stage where its acceptable to use/wear boxer shorts with the national flag on them, and hope it never does.
Venkatesh Kotte: I support Sushma Swaraj ji. People who are okay with doormats with Indian flag can leave India and go to some other country of their choice.
Himanshu Chandra: I think there are many more pending issues our ministers should care about, instead of saving cows and making comments on film actors, start taking care of the citizens too.
Niharika Jain: I support her and suggest her to not only demand an apology but either ban them permanently from entering India or slap them with a huge penalty.
Amit Aggarwal PK: It shows Sushma Swaraj has so much free time. A minister who doesn't add any value to the government/governance except tweeting.
Nadeem Mohammad Abid: Pointless, what's the big deal about selling doormats with Indian tricolour? People are just overreacting, there are doormats of other national flags too. I wear underwear with UK flag on it. Is the Queen demanding an apology? Grow Up!