Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has shown a unparalleled response, both in public and privately, over the extremely offensive issue of Amazon.com selling a doormat which closely resembles the Indian national flag, says a document with Reuters.
This January, Indian Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, made it public that the government would nullify visas of Amazon employees if the Canadian website does not remove the doormats with immediate effect.
However, Reuters has confirmed that after threatening them in public, the government went one step ahead, and privately discussed the matter with its U.S. and Canadian embassies asking them to raise this matter “strongly” in front of Amazon’s senior administrators.
The document has also disclosed that this matter was also brought into the knowledge of Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos, and a global audit was provoked by the company for the sake of ensuring ” that such products are not listed on any of its other” websites in the world.
Amazon took immediate action over the issue and removed the alleged product within 24 hours and apologized the government. However, it declined to comment anything on the incident.
Amazon can not afford to make such mistakes, especially with respect to India, because it is still having a hard time to firm its grip in the sub-continent, as it faces severe competition from domestic e-commerce giants Flipkart and Snapdeal. Amazon is planning to invest over $5 billion to combat the two home-grown phenom in world’s largest growing economy.
Highlighting the steps India and the company have taken since the incident, the document says that Amazon has formulated Indian laws that administer the use of the national flag and other emblems “an integral part of the global compliance process.”
In order to resurrect the government’s faith within itself, Amazon told them that they are strengthening their in-house compliance units which examine the products coming from third-party vendors, said the document.
The document read;
Amazon India has conveyed that it is fully committed to respecting Indian laws and customs.
