NEW DELHI: E-commerce giant Amazon.com felt the heat heat on Sunday for selling doormats featuring Hindu gods. #BoycottAmazon started trending on social media with many people demanding action against the company.
Rock Bull, an international brand selling home, kitchen, and office supplies through Amazon, has a large number of products featuring Indian gods and goddesses.
Though Amazon has nothing to do with the designing of the doormats, users took to Twitter to express their ire against the e-commerce giant after finding doormats with Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesha depicted on them.
Interestingly, the brand in question doesn’t only have Hindu gods depicted on its doormats. Some of them feature Jesus and Quran. The company has also used the same pictures for mouse pads, phone covers, and wall frames as well. “Images of Hindu gods Shiva, Vishnu, Krishna, Ganesha, Venkateswara, Saraswati, Murugan, Durga, Hanuman and Padmanabha are depicted in the doormats. The gods are meant to be worshipped in temples, shrines and homes. The images of gods are not meant for doormats,” said Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism.
Users posted screenshots of the products along with the #BoycottAmazon hashtag to hit out at the e-commerce giant. Some users also pointed to doormats featuring the Indian flag.
The doormats have since been removed from the site. But, paintings and wall frames deemed “less offensive” are still listed for sale.
However, amazon blocked the pages of all the controversial products.
This is not the first time that Amazon has gotten into trouble. In 2014, Hindu cleric Rajan Zed had noted that the website was selling women’s leggings carrying images of various Hindu Gods.