New Delhi
Online giant Amazon India has apologized to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for hurting Indian sensibilities by offering doormats with the country’s national flag on it.
“Amazon India is committed to respecting Indian laws and customs. To the extent that these items offered by a third-party seller in Canada offended Indian sensibilities, Amazon regrets the same. At no time did we intend or mean to offends Indian sentiments,” Amazon India’s Vice President Amit Aggrawal said in his letter to Swaraj.
The products were from a third-party seller and were listed to be sold in Canada.
“These products were not available in India. After learning of the products’ listing, we immediately removed them from the Canadian website and implemented measures to ensure that these products could not be sold on any of our other marketplaces of websites,” Mr Aggarwal added.
The matter was brought to Swaraj’s notice by one of her followers, who tagged her with a screenshot of the company’s website selling “Indian Flag personalised” Welcome Doormats. The Minister asked the Indian High Commission to take up the matter with Amazon at the highest level. Thereafter she asked the multi-billion dollar firm to tender unconditional apology and to withdraw all products insulting the national flag immediately. “If this is not done forthwith we will not grant Indian Visa to any Amazon official. We will also rescind the Visas issued earlier,” Swaraj said in a sharply worded tweet.