Upset Hindus urge withdrawal of Lord Ganesh image from Belgium beer

Upset Hindus have urged Belgium based The Musketeers Brewery to apologize and withdraw image of Lord Ganesh from its Jack's Precious IPA beer label, calling it highly inappropriate.

Lord Ganesh's image is shown on Jack's Precious IPA (Alcohol: 5.9%, EBC: 20, IBU: 50) beer label carrying chef knife in one hand and sausage like object on the other, and brewery's trade mark symbol on his head; a product of Ursel (East Flanders, Belgium) headquartered The Musketeers Brewery.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts or symbols for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, indicated that Lord Ganesh was highly revered in Hinduism and he was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be used in selling beer for mercantile greed. Moreover, linking Lord Ganesh with an alcoholic beverage was very disrespectful, Zed added.

Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled, Rajan Zed noted.

In Hinduism, Lord Ganesh is worshipped as god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and is invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking.