Tanishq Withdraws Advertisement After Online Trolls
On 9th October Tanishq released an advertisement to promote its new collection Ekatvam. After extensive trolling, Tanishq was forced to pull down the commercial showing Hindu – Muslim unity.
On 9th October Tanishq released an advertisement to promote its new jewellery collection Ekatvam. In the advertisement, a Hindu woman who is married into a Muslim family is set for her baby shower. Her in-laws are shown to do everything to make their Hindu daughter-in-law feel comfortable by performing Hindu rituals. The description of the Tanishq commercial was: She is married into a family that loves her like their own child. Only for her, they go out of their way to celebrate an occasion that they usually don’t. A beautiful confluence of two different religions, traditions, cultures. When the advertisement was shared on social media, especially Twitter, a lot of users objected to it. #BoycottTanishq began trending across social media. The commercial was criticized by netizens, who alleged that the advertisement promoted 'Love Jihad'. Love Jihad is a theory that is spread by people who do hate Muslims. Love Jihad is where a Muslim man targets women belonging to non-Muslim communities, they pretend to love them & marry them to convert them to islam. Many people said the Tanishq advertisement is encouraging love jihad by supporting inter-faith marriages.
BJP's Khemchand Sharma tweeted, "Why are you showing a Hindu "daughter in law" to a muslim family and glorifying it? Why dont you show a Muslim daughter in law in your ads with a Hindu family? M Nageswara Rao, the former CBI additional director Tweeted and said: Hindus have not only been loyal customers of TATAs but are also very proud of the TATA company. Then why is Tata making such a ant-hindu video? Does Ratan Tata support such a video? All those that worked on the video must be fired immediately. Kangana Ranaut had also criticized the advertisement. She Tweeted: This Advertisement is wrong! Muslim family only care about their Hindu daughter-in-law if she is pregnant. Does this mean a woman is only a baby making machine? She does not have her own identity? This video supports love jihad but also oppresses women!
However many supported the video saying it is a beautiful video about an interfaith marriage and how Muslims and Hindus can live happily together while supporting each other’s beliefs. The #BoycottTanishq began trending on Twitter. Many employees of Tanishq were issued threats by people. On Youtube the video had more dislikes than likes. Eventually Because of all the online hate, the company removed the video from their YouTube. However many people were sad that Tanishq deleted the beautiful video in fear of online trolls.
