Official Twitter account of LensKart turns troll, posts tweet against NRC

On Sunday, the official Twitter handle of Lenskart, India’s leading eyewear business company, put out a controversial tweet in reply to Prajwal Busta, Member of Himachal Pradesh State Planning Board, who questioned the doublespeak of Shaheen Bagh protestors.

She had highlighted how those who refused to show documents were willingly displaying their Voter IDs while standing in queues outside polling booths.

https://twitter.com/PrajwalBusta/status/1226024390308945920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
In defence of the Shaheen Bagh protestors, Lenskart tweeted, “These documents are not of 1950, Miss Prajwal.”

The contentious Anti-NRC tweet has now been deleted.

The “reference to 1950” was a jibe at the National Register of Citizens (NRC) process that was first conducted in Assam in 1951. This anti-NRC tweet irked several Twitter users who called out the company for its tweet.

It may be noted that Prajwal Busta didn’t tag LensKart or any other handle in the tweet, she had only included few hashtags in the tweet, along with a photograph of voters in front of a polling booth. Still the official Twitter handle of LensKart chose to respond to the tweet with a controversial tweet.

Journalist Kanchan Gupta accused the company of deliberate misinterpretation of the Citizenship Amendment Act that has fuelled protests in Shaheen Bagh. He suggested his followers to avoid using the company’s glasses.

https://twitter.com/KanchanGupta/status/1226439797016711169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
A user who goes by the handle, @Jal_Kukdi, took a jibe at Lenskart and suggested that they themselves need better quality spectacles to avoid misreading things.

https://twitter.com/Jal_Kukdi/status/1226439303003299840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Read- Modi government dispels myths about NRC: Here are 13 FAQs and their answers published by the govt

Miffed by the contentious tweet, a Twitter user (@sanjeevpathak2) dropped his plans to buy a new set of spectacles from the company.

https://twitter.com/sanjeevpathak2/status/1226436921003393024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Another Twitter user (@Chandan_tndn) wrote that companies such as Ola and Snapdeal can now sympathise with Lenkskart for being at the epicenter of social media backlash.

https://twitter.com/Chandan_tndn/status/1226440459897040896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This is not the first time that such a prominent establishment has come under the scanner for controversial tweets. Earlier, an Islamist by the name of Khurshid Zenia tweeted in support of the rioters in Jamia Millia Islamia from the official Twitter handle of the Press Information Bureau (PIB).

OpIndia Staff: Staff reporter at OpIndia