Sushma Swaraj Warns Amazon: Apologise or We Cancel Visas

 India has demanded that online retail giant Amazon withdraw its sale in Canada of doormats with imprints of the Indian flag, threatening to prevent the group’s officials from entering the country – all on Twitter.

Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj also sought an “unconditional apology” from Amazon on the social media platform, accusing it of “insulting” the Tricolour by selling the doormats.

As per latest reports, early Thursday morning the company  withdrew the images of the doormats designed like the Indian flag from its Canada website, though the products were still available – priced at 35.99 Canadian dollars (Rs 1,860). “The item is no longer available for sale on the site,” a spokeswoman for Amazon has been quoted by a daily from India.

While imprinting the national flag on any commercial product is a violation of the Indian flag code, the sale of the doormats – or any other product – with any country’s flag on it is legal in Canada. Amazon’s Canada site sells doormats with the UK and US flags on them, and bikinis with the Canadian flag on them.

But Sushma appeared to be counting on India’s economic clout – and the massive market it represents – to pressure Amazon into pulling back the products even though they do not violate any law. Amazon chief Jess Bezos had last year announced plans to increase the company’s India investments from US$2bn to $5bn.

“Amazon must tender an unconditional apology,” the foreign minister wrote on Twitter. “They must withdraw all products insulting our national flag immediately. If this is not done forthwith, we will not grant Indian visa to any Amazon official. We will also rescind the visas issued earlier.”

Sushma, recuperating from a kidney transplant surgery, sprang into Twitter outrage after one of her followers on the platform pointed out images of the doormats in the colours and shape of the Indian flag, posted on the Amazon Canada website.

But the history of the doormats on the Amazon Canada website suggests they have been available on the portal since August 11, 2016 – for five months before they caught the foreign minister’s attention. Indian Canadians have also protested against the doormats for at least a week now, and some have drafted an online petition asking Amazon to withdraw the products. The foreign minister also asked the Indian high commission in Canada to “take this up with Amazon at the highest level”. “This is unacceptable,” she wrote. A Canadian company called Theodore Stanley Goles manufactures the doormats and sells them on Amazon for a commission, according to details available on the retailer’s website. The doormats are manufactured in China and shipped from there. The incident is only the latest controversy Amazon has found itself in over doormats. Last year, it was pressured into withdrawing doormats with images of deities embossed on them.