Amazon stops Indian flag doormat sales

NEW DELHI: Retail giant Amazon removed Indian flag-themed doormats from its website yesterday after a government warning and widespread uproar in the country.

Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj told the US company on Wednesday it must apologise unconditionally and withdraw all products insulting the flag from its website or have the visas of its officials cancelled.

The doormats, sold by a third-party on Amazon’s Canadian website, were removed by early yesterday, hours after Swaraj issued the warning.

“The item is no longer available for sale on the site,” an Amazon spokesman said.

Amazon sells doormats featuring flags of other countries, but in India desecration of the flag is punishable with fines and imprisonment of up to three years.

Swaraj intervened after a Twitter user sent her a screenshot of the doormats featuring the flag on sale on Amazon Canada.

The products were on offer by two vendors.

“Indian High Commission in Canada: This is unacceptable. Please take this up with Amazon at the highest level,” she wrote on Twitter.

Swaraj is among the most prolific Twitter users in the Indian government and often responds to tweets addressed to her.

The sale of the doormats infuriated Indians who threatened to boycott the company.

Many vented their anger on the official Twitter account of the company.

Amazon, which launched its India operations in 2013, has been aggressively expanding in the country.

It has promised to invest more than US$5 billion (RM22 billion) as it takes on domestic retailers for a share in India’s huge ecommerce market.

This is not Amazon’s first brush with controversy in India.

It had got into trouble last year for selling doormats with Hindu deities. – dpa