BJP MP Tejasvi Surya's tweet forces Fabindia to withdraw controversial advertisement

Bengaluru: After Bengaluru South MP and BJP Yuva Morcha president, Tejasvi Surya took a dig at Fabindia, a well-known apparel chain, for its controversial advertisement, 'Jashn-e-Riwaaz', the company withdrew the promo immediately.

Tejasvi Surya took Fabindia to task through a tweet, for referring to Diwali as 'Jashn-e-Riwaaz', thereby projecting it as if it was a non-Hindu tradition.

In his tweet, he stated, "Deepavali is not Jashn-e-Riwaaz. This deliberate attempt of abrahamisation of Hindu festivals, depicting models without traditional Hindu attires, must be called out. And brands like Fabindia must face economic costs for such deliberate misadventures."

He also questioned Fabindia models not projecting Diwali celebrations in the 'Jashn-e-Riwaaz' advertisement. Fabindia had put up an ad to unveil the Diwali collection of clothes it had presented on October 9 in the name, 'Jashn-e-Riwaaz'.

One of the twitterati, Baburaj Verma, defending the advertisers, said there is nothing wrong in it. He said, "I didn't find anything wrong with the ad here Jashn-e-Riwaaz (celebration of customs) is a brand name for a collection of dress that they are promoting for Diwali and the ad also touches upon our own rich culture. Please do not overdo Hinduism Tejasvi Surya."

While supporting MP Tejasvi on the issue, Mohandas Pai of Manipal Global Education said, "Yes very true, Fabindia is doing this deliberately and consumers must protest this misuse like they did for others."

He added, "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."