New Delhi: Now, Fabindia has caught in the eye of the storm with BJP leader Tejasvi Surya on Monday criticising the ad campaign of the clothing brand in which it referred to Diwali as ‘Jashn-e-Riwaaz’, saying that it’s “deliberate misadventures".
While sharing his displeasure over the Fabindia campaign, Surya said that Fabindia “must face economic costs for such deliberate misadventures". “Deepavali is not Jashn-e-Riwaaz. This deliberate attempt of abrahamisation of Hindu festivals, depicting models without traditional Hindu attires, must be called out," Surya, the national president of BJP Yuva Morcha, the leader posted on Twitter.
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Earlier this month on October 9, the company depicted promoted its campaign by sharing pics of some male and female models in sarees and kurta pyjamas. “As we welcome the festival of love and light, Jashn-e-Riwaaz by Fabindia is a collection that beautifully pays homage to Indian culture," the accompanying tweet had said.
However, the original tweet is no longer available and has been deleted by the company. The clothing brand faced backlash from certain sections of social media which described the promotion as “culturally inappropriate”. Some tweeted that a simple ‘Diwali’ or ‘Deepavali’ in the description would have been enough for promotion, others said it was not required to deconstruct the Hindu festival and infuse secularism into it
In fact, chairman of Manipal Global Education Mohandas Pai also hit out at the brand for its choice of words. “Use of Alien terms for a Hindu festival is a deliberate attempt to take away our heritage and subvert it! You can use any brand name you want post-Diwali but at this time, linking it to Diwali shows a perverted mindset!" he tweeted.
Citing Surya’s tweet, Pai wrote: “Yes very true, @FabindiaNews is doing this deliberately and consumers must protest this misuse like they did for others."