Captain Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister of Punjab has expressed his strong objection over toilet seats and mats having the image of Golden Temple printed on them being sold on the e-retailing website Amazon. He posted the screenshot of the product image in Twitter and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the product by the company.
Strongly condemn use of pictures of Sri Darbar Sahib with toilet seat by Philiphome Universal. It has hurt the religious sentiments of Sikh community worldwide. Demand immediate withdrawal of the seat by the company and an apology. pic.twitter.com/LE4yKOkxjp
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) December 19, 2018
Earlier Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Minister Majinder S Sirsa had sent a legal notice to Amazon for selling rugs, doormats and the toilet seats with the image of the Darbar Sahib on them.
A prominent US-based Sikh Body called Sikh Coalition had also slammed Amazon for selling the products. Sim Singh the Sikh coalition’s Senior Manager of Advocacy & Policy wrote a letter to the CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos and Senior Vice President & General Counsel David Zapolsky, asking to permanently prohibit the sale of such objectionable items. “It has come to our attention that several sellers are posting products onto your platform that culturally appropriates the imagery of the Golden Temple and spiritual imagery of other eastern cultures,” the letter read.
Singh said, “using religious or spiritual imagery on products that come into contact with unhygienic surfaces is offensive to all faiths that originated in the East. The Golden Temple is no such exception and should never appear on rugs, bathmats, and toilet seat covers. Such items are deeply offensive to Sikhs everywhere and other followers of Eastern religions”.
