The last three months of a calendar year are important inIndia from a businessperson’s point of view. The collection of many festivalslike Christmas, Diwali, Dussehra and the psychological need for rest after ayear’s worth of hard work and events make this quarter lucrative.
Tanishq is a jeweler with branches all over India and hasbig names like Titan and Tata Group behind it. The brand value allows thejeweler to command a price premium over local counterparts and smallercompanies.
The company launched an interfaith advertisement. Our nationis secular and the governments go out of their way to promote interfaith andintercaste marriages with financial incentives. The advertisement which causedthe storm features the religion of Hinduism and Islam.
A Hindu woman marries a Muslim man, and now the woman ishaving her baby shower. The husband’s family accommodates the woman and has thecelebrations as per her religion.
The participants of various social media online have takenstrong offense at the advertisement.
The most common response has been the assigning theadvertisement as a promotion of something called “Love Jihad” which means aMuslim man marrying a Hindu woman and making her convert to Islam against herwill.
Another common reaction is a question if the company will bewilling to reverse the role of the man and the woman i.e. a Muslim woman and a Hinduhusband.
Some of the Twitter users are asking the motive behind theadvertisement, what is the narrative the company is attempting to promote.
Some people are challenging the ability of the peoplepromoting the boycott if they can afford Tanishq in the first place.
A very faint noise in the favor of Tanishq is being heardwith few on Twitter claiming that interfaith marriages are the future and askquestion why the people are so paranoid.
Still, even fewer are saying that what “Bhakts” are askingto boycott, they will do the opposite.