A day after Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s stern warning to Amazon, the e-commerce giant has apologized for the sale of Indian flag-themed doormats on its Canadian website. Last night, Amazon had dropped the Indian flag-themed doormats from its website.
Amazon India Vice President Amit Agarwal wrote to Sushma Swaraj, “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 offend Indian sentiments.”
On Wednesday, Sushma Swaraj asked Amazon to apologize for selling doormats with Indian Flag printed on it. The doormat was found selling on Amazon Canada website and same was reported by a twitter user to Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs.
After being notified and confirming the report, Sushma Swaraj immediately took action against it and warned Amazon to remove such products from its online store and apologize, otherwise, all issued visas to Amazon’s officials will be cancelled and no Indian visa will be issued to any Amazon Official in future.
Here’s what she said- “Amazon must tender unconditional apology. They must withdraw all products insulting our 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.”
Amazon also responded immediately and took down the product. Sushma Swaraj had instructed the Indian High Commission in Canada to deal with Amazon on the matter.