India threatens Amazon over flag doormat

India threatens Amazon over flag doormat
by Charles Riley @CRrileyCNN January 11, 2017: 11:50 AM ET

India has threatened to cancel the visas of Amazon employees if the retailer continues to sell doormats featuring the country's flag.
Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj made the threat Wednesday on Twitter, saying that if the offending product is not removed from Amazon's Canada website, she would not grant visas to Amazon officials and "rescind the visas issued earlier."


Swaraj described the product as "unacceptable" and directed the Indian High Commission in Canada to take the issue up with Amazon at "the highest level."

"Amazon must tender unconditional apology," she said. "They must withdraw all products insulting our national flag immediately."

AMAZON(AMZN, Tech30) representatives in the United States did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But a company spokeswomen in India said they needed "time to assess and respond."

One of the company's customer service accounts on Twitter also addressed the issue, saying the products were never sold on Amazon's India site.

"We have escalated this to our concerned teams and are working on the issue," the tweet said.

The flag's product listing page was soon inundated with comments.

"You cannot insult a national flag of India by making a doormat of it," said one user. "Delete this listing immediately."

 

Amazon has removed the product, apologised and promised never to do that again.

STOP playing with the dead snake or news in this case.

 

That's how I got thru college. WVU TACKLE

 

Never was into running with ball rather slapping it.

 

I never run with the ball either, just made sure no one on the other team did.

 

India privately took Amazon to task over insulting flag doormat: Report

India's reaction to an Amazon.com website selling doormats resembling the country's flag involved an unprecedented public and private offensive against the U.S. company by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, a document shows.

Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj publicly threatened in January to rescind visas of Amazon employees if the doormats were not removed from its Canadian website.

But a document seen by Reuters shows the government went even further in private, asking its U.S. and Canadian embassies to raise the matter "strongly" with Amazon's senior leadership.

India also escalated the matter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and prompted a global audit by the company to "ensure that such products are not listed on any of its other" websites around the world, according to the document.

Amazon, which removed the products within 24 hours and apologized to the government, declined to comment.

Much is at stake for Amazon in India, where it plans to invest more than $5 billion as it takes on home-grown Flipkart and Snapdeal for a bigger share of the internet services market in the world's fastest growing major economy.

Amazon has now made Indian laws that govern the use of the national flag and other emblems "an integral part of the global compliance process," the document said, outlining the steps Amazon and India have taken since the incident.

India's reaction underscores the risks governments run by nationalist leaders are posing for businesses around the world. U.S. President Donald Trump, for example, has also taken an aggressive stance on Twitter against individual companies.

Last year, Modi presented a global leadership award to Bezos at a U.S.-India Business Council summit in Washington.

Amazon told the government that it had strengthened its in-house compliance units that monitor products sold by third-party vendors on its websites, the document said.

"Amazon India has conveyed that it is fully committed to respecting Indian laws and customs," the document said.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/techno...r-insulting-flag-doormat-report/1/916608.html

 

Good india took this matter up, these companies need to be respectful to indian public sensitivity