Kashmir Chocolate Ad Angers India's Hindu Nationalists
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| "I'm good. I'm tempting. I'm too good to share. What am I? Cadbury's Temptations or Kashmir?" read the punchline |
NEW DELHI, August 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - An advertisement for Swiss chocolate featuring the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir on the map of India, with the punchline: "Too good to share", has attracted the wrath of hardline Hindu nationalists, a report said Tuesday, August 20.
The advertisement, published to coincide with India's Independence Day by Cadbury India Limited for its Temptations brand, depicts Kashmir along with a riddle: "I'm good. I'm tempting. I'm too good to share. What am I? Cadbury's Temptations or Kashmir?"
The advertisement’s punchline: "Too good to share", written in bold across the shaded area highlighting Kashmir on the map, raised the hackles of politicians in Bombay belonging to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's hardline Hindu nationalist BJP party, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The message was quite clear - that like Cadbury's Temptations brand, "Kashmir too can't be shared."
"In the first place, how can you use India's map for commercial gain?" asked Vinod Tawde, who heads the BJP's Bombay chapter.
"Kashmir is a very sensitive issue and thousands… have sacrificed their lives for it," Tawde was quoted as saying in the Pioneer newspaper.
India has cracked down on an independence war led by Muslim fighters against Indian rule in Kashmir since 1989 - a turmoil that has cost Kashmir 70,000 lives.
"Such ads just trivialize the issue ... How can an ad campaign, in the name of creativity, even imply that Kashmir is a state to be shared?" the BJP leader asked, threatening national protests.
But the people of Muslim-majority Kashmir have voiced their will to gain independence from India or become part of Pakistan. India insists, however, the Himalayan state is an indivisible part of its territory.
Kashmir, the cause of two of the three wars between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, is divided between the two countries and claimed by both.
Cadbury India Limited apologized for the advertisement.
"The press advertisement for Cadbury Temptations... was issued entirely in good faith, with no intention whatsoever to offend the sentiments of the public," a company statement said.
"We offer our sincere apologies to any section of the public that may have been offended by this advertisement," the statement added.
Cadbury India Limited is part of the Cadbury Schweppes group and is India's leading confectionery manufacturer
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