@TanishqJewelry | Photo credit: Twitter
New Delhi: Amid the huge dispute over an ad showing an interfaith baby shower, a report on Wednesday claimed that the Tanishq jewelry brand store was attacked by a mob in the town of Gandhidham in Gujarat’s Kutch district on Monday for the night. However, the news is now said to be false.
According to Kutch (East) Police Superintendent Mayur Patil, two people had visited the Tanishq store in Gandhidham on October 12 and asked the owner in Gujarati for a written apology. “The owner of the store had complied with the demand, but was receiving threatening calls from Kutch. The news about the attack on the store is false,” said Patil.
Rahul Manuja, manager of the Tanishq store in Gandhidham, also dismissed reports of an attack. “The store has not been attacked. However, I received some threatening calls. The police have supported us,” Manuja said.
In particular, Tanishq is already facing backlash from a section of social media users to the ad, which shows a Muslim family hosting a baby shower for their Hindu daughter-in-law.
Earlier today, the West Bengal Youth Congress tweeted that the Tanishq store was attacked in Gujarat’s Gandhidham and the store manager was forced to write an apology for the advertisement.
“Apologies to the people of the Kutch district for hurting the sentiment of Hindus by spreading secular (sic) publicity,” the manager wrote in the apology letter. NDTV.
In particular, the ad has been removed from the jewelry brand’s social media channels. The company said that “the idea behind the Ekatvam campaign is to celebrate the coming together of people from different walks of life.”
In a statement Tuesday, Tanishq added: “We are deeply saddened by the inadvertent movement of emotions and we are withdrawing this film in light of the hurt feelings and well-being of our employees, partners and store staff.”
On both Monday and Tuesday, #BoycottTanishq was trending on Twitter, with one user saying the ad was intended to showcase the “love jihad collection.”
Meanwhile, Congressional Leader Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter Tuesday to praise the “beautiful announcement.”
“So Hindutva fans have called for a boycott of Tanishq jewelry to highlight Hindu-Muslim unity through this beautiful advertisement. If the Hindu-Muslim ‘ekatvam’ annoys them so much, why don’t they boycott the older symbol Hindu-Muslim unity? in the world – India? “asked the deputy from Thiruvananthapuram.
His party colleague, Anand Sharma, expressed shock at the controversy. “Impressed by the controversy triggered by a beautiful #tanishq ad in which the acceptance and love of a mother-in-law for her daughter-in-law is attacked, it is most distressing. The intolerant people have taken hatred in a ridiculous extreme way,” the former minister published of the Union on Twitter.
