Boycott Amazon echoes on Twitter for 'hurting' Hindu sentiments

• Amazon is in hot water with Twitter users over hurting Hindu sentiments.
• The hashtag #BoycottAmazon started trending after a user shared a picture of Amazon selling toilet covers with pictures of Hindu gods printed on them.
• Amazon has issued a statement saying that its asking the vendors to take down the items.

Twitter has erupted with Indians clamoring to #BoycottAmazon for selling products that disrespect Hindu religious sentiments. The outrage went viral after Anshul Saxena, a Twitter user, posted a picture of Amazon selling multiple toilet covers with a Hindu deity's image on top — even though the product is not for sale in India.


Amazon has issued a statement saying that it has asked its vendors to remove the items from the store. And, come the weekend, 33 products quietly disappeared from Amazon's online inventory.


This isn’t the first time that Amazon’s gotten into trouble for disrespecting Hindu sentiments.

In 2016, the online e-commerce platform was called out for selling doormats with faces of Hindu gods on them. There were over 60 separate doormats being sold and Amazon soon realised that the problem wasn’t limited to the Hindi religion but Christianity and Islamic religions as well with images of Jesus and the Holy Quran featured on floor mats.

It’s not just Amazon

The fascination of combining Hindu gods and western toilets isn’t limited to Amazon. In November last year, an Indian-American woman, Ankita Mishra, called out House of Yes — a pub a Bushwick, New York — on her blog for adorning their washrooms with images of Indian gods.



But the crux of the matter is that items sold on Amazon aren’t sold by Amazon itself. It’s actually third party vendors that are selling the products through the e-commerce site. Considering that it’s happened once before as well, maybe it’s time for Amazon to step up its guidelines and regulations.