India threatens Amazon for selling doormats showing flag

In India, as elsewhere around the world, touching something with the bottom of your feet, especially if they are dirty, is considered a sign of immense disrespect. It is customary to remove one’s footwear before entering someone else’s home or a place of worship.

So when Phoenix-based Ratnesh Mishra came across a picture of an Indian flag doormat on Amazon’s Canadian website, he was incensed. He wrote a Facebook post and tagged India’s prime minister, its ruling party and its social-media-savvy foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj.

On Wednesday, a week after Mishra’s post, Swaraj took up his cause on Twitter, responding to one of the hundreds of people who have petitioned her to demand action from Canadian authorities. Her tweet storm escalated the protest into a possible diplomatic spat. Her Twitter messages included: “Indian High Commission in Canada This is unacceptable. Please take this up with Amazon at the highest level”; “Amazon must tender unconditional apology. They must withdraw all products insulting our national flag immediately”; and “If this is not done forthwith, we will not grant Indian Visa to any Amazon official.”

Later on Wednesday, a spokesman for Amazon contacted the Washington Post to say that the doormat was no longer for sale on its website.

The Indian High Commission in Ottawa did not respond to a request for clarification on whether it had lodged a complaint with Amazon’s Canadian offices. On social media, many Indians expressed shock that Swaraj had escalated the issue so suddenly, noting that Amazon has a massive operation in India.

The company that sold the doormats, XLYL, also offers versions with the American and Canadian flags. No laws in Canada prohibit these sales.