"No I am not offended. I am a Hindu and my religion is not so weak to be at risk by just a small advt. My religion has withstood thousands of years of invasion and still standing tall," comments Avneet Kapoor, a soft engineer who lives in Sydney.
India has lodged a diplomatic protest over the 'Ganesha Ad' by Meat and Livestock Australia. The advertisement, released last week, was designed to promote lamb meat and has left many Hindus offended.
Source: SBS
The ad features several religious figures including Ganesha, the Indian God.
The Indian High Commission has released a statement saying that it has made a 'démarche;' to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Communication and Arts and the Department of Agriculture over the “insensitive” ad.
When SBS Hindi posed this question before its Facebook followers, many said that they were not offended by the ad.
Sal Kumar commented, “Only idiots and small minded people will take offence, bet they are the first ones to eat chips from McDonalds and chew gum all day. Ask me why I mentioned chips and chew gum? Gum has gelatine and chips are fried in the same oil as in the chicken or other meat is fried!!”
Not that everyone is ‘not offended’. Many commentators said that they are hurt. Pooja Sharma of Melbourne comments, “I don't like it, it's not about unity it's about doing unacceptable thing. Meat and wine is prohibited in Hindu religious ceremonies, people don't use even eggs when they prepare food for religious ceremonies, it doesn't matter whether they are veg or non-veg.”
Source: SBS
Pooja also says,”I am not asking to ban the advert as people who made this ad may have different ground of thinking but I personally didn’t like the idea and presentation.”
But Priya Seewoosaha is very offended. She commented on SBS Hindi post, “Yeah offended ....Hindus don't promote killing of animals for consumption ,and Ganesh Ji ,sitting with wine and meat .def not acceptable.”
Shailendra Shah demands that the ad must be stopped immediately while Sahil Sharma of Adelaide says that a public apology must be demanded. He writes, “People who are not offended with this ad shows how weak we are as a community and if this happens to other religions and the whole scenario would be different and these people starts condemning. Need to be united and demand for public apology from ad officials.”
There were 46 comments on the post till 12.00 pm today and less than half said they were offended.
Source: SBS
Source: SBS
Source: SBS
This, of course cannot be seen as a measure of the sentiments of Indian society.
Meanwhile, some Indian community representatives met with the Minister for Multiculturalism, Ray Williams and Chair of Multicultural NSW Dr. Harry Harinath to express their concerns about this ad on Wednessday.
Gurdeep Singh, President of Association of Indian Australians in NSW (INDAUS Inc) told SBS Punjabi that the minister has promised that he would provide feedback to the community within 48 hours.
