Consumer goods company Dabur India Limited has withdrawn an advertisement showing a lesbian couple celebrating the Hindu festival of Karva Chauth. Dabur India has also apologized for this. The company has taken this step after the warning of Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra. Mishra had criticized it as “objectionable material”. He also warned that legal action would be taken if the advertisement was not withdrawn.
During a press conference in Bhopal on Monday morning, Mishra told reporters, “Today they are showing two women celebrating Karwachauth. Tomorrow they will come up with an advertisement that will show two men getting married. We cannot allow such objectionable material to anyone.”
Dabur India said in a statement issued from its Twitter handle, “Fem’s Karwachauth campaign has been withdrawn from all social media handles and we unconditionally apologise for unintentionally hurting people’s sentiments.”
The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMSG) company removed the advertisement of Fem Cream Bleach on various social media platforms on October 23, a day before the festival. The 1.06-minute ad featured two women getting ready for the festival ritual in which a woman is traditionally expected to observe a day’s fast for her husband and break it after seeing the moon at night.
At the same time, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Mishra said, I had asked to send a warning to withdraw the advertisement before registering an FIR for hurting religious sentiments. It is good that they withdrew the ad and apologized for it.
Let us tell you that a few days ago, FabIndia had to face criticism for calling Diwali a Jashn-e-Riwaaz. Popular clothing brand Fabindia had on October 9 posted a promotional post for its new collection titled Jashn-e-Riwaaz on Twitter. After this, several right-wing Twitter users, including several BJP leaders, accused the company of harming the Hindu festival of Diwali. Following the controversy, FabIndia took back the ad by deleting the tweet.