{"id":50561,"date":"2022-02-12T22:30:44","date_gmt":"2022-02-12T17:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=50561"},"modified":"2022-02-12T22:30:44","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T17:00:44","slug":"stores-owned-by-multinational-firms-including-kia-hyundai-and-pizza-hut-forced-to-close-in-the-western-indian-state-of-gujarat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=50561","title":{"rendered":"Stores owned by multinational firms, including KIA, Hyundai and Pizza Hut, forced to close in the western Indian state of Gujarat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"photo-a-member-of-bajrang-dal-a-hindu-supremacist-group-shouts-slogans-in-front-of-a-kia-motors-showroom-during-in-ahmedabad\"><em><strong>Photo<\/strong>: A member of Bajrang Dal, a Hindu supremacist group, shouts slogans in front of a KIA Motors showroom during in Ahmedabad<\/em> <\/h6>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Stores owned by several multinational companies have been forced to shut down by hardline Hindu groups in the Indian state of Gujarat after their Pakistan-based subsidiaries posted messages on social media in support of Kashmir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The companies posted messages on social media on February 5 to coincide with Pakistan\u2019s Kashmir Solidarity Day, held annually to commemorate the sacrifices of Kashmiris struggling for self-determination, causing anger among social media users in India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dozens of stores and showrooms belonging to Pizza Hut, KFC and South Korean car giants \u2013 Hyundai and KIA \u2013 were shut in the western Indian state by members of Hindu supremacist groups \u2013 the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) \u2013 linked to Prime Minister Modi\u2019s governing Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese companies cannot be doing business in India and at the same time supporting Pakistan\u2019s stand on Kashmir,\u201d Dinesh Navadiya, national treasurer of VHP, told the Reuters news agency during a protest in the city of Surat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shouting slogans such as \u201cKashmir is Ours\u201d and wearing saffron scarves, more than 100 members of Bajrang Dal also joined the protest \u2013 one of several held in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Modi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe protested peacefully against these companies for the tweets by their Pakistani affiliates in support of Kashmir,\u201d said Hitendrasinh Rajput, spokesperson for the VHP\u2019s state unit in Gujarat\u2019s largest city of Ahmedabad.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Bajrang Dal members staged a protest at food joints of KFC, Dominos, Pizza Hut &amp; showrooms of Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors in Ahmedabad against their social media post supporting &#39;Kashmir Solidarity Day&#39;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Gujarat?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Gujarat<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BajrangDal?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#BajrangDal<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/hk?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#hk<\/a><br><br> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/aE44mkPHPK\">pic.twitter.com\/aE44mkPHPK<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Hitanshi Katariya (@HitanshiKatari2) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HitanshiKatari2\/status\/1492485706576392194?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 12, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe want to make it clear to these companies and others that Kashmir is an inseparable part of India,\u201d Rajput said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Companies including Hyundai, Kia, Domino\u2019s Pizza, Yum Brand\u2019s Pizza Hut and KFC, Japan\u2019s Suzuki Motor, Honda Motor and Isuzu Motor issued apologies as criticism of the posts grew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>South Korea\u2019s Hyundai Motor Company said it deeply regrets any offence caused to Indians by an \u201cunauthorised\u201d tweet from the account of its Pakistan partner that expressed solidarity for the people of Kashmir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\nhttps:\/\/twitter.com\/rakesh2100jha\/status\/1491048637832769541?s=20&#038;t=-4h8rOgy_P7JOrld1b8a-w\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe deeply regret any offence caused to the people of India by this unofficial social media activity. We have put in place processes to prevent a future recurrence,\u201d Hyundai said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company is India\u2019s second-largest car seller after Maruti Suzuki, selling close to half a million vehicles in the country in the last fiscal year and exporting more than a million units, making it India\u2019s largest car exporter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Similarly, KFC India tweeted an apology for the post and said, \u201cWe honour and respect India, and remain steadfast in our commitment to serving all Indians with pride.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The social media posts triggered a diplomatic dispute, leading India to summon South Korea\u2019s envoy over the matter last week. India conveyed the \u201cstrong displeasure of the government on the unacceptable social media post by Hyundai Pakistan\u201d, ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi was quoted by the local Hindustan Times as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>South Korea\u2019s foreign minister also called his Indian counterpart. The pair discussed the \u201cHyundai matter\u201d, India\u2019s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a Twitter post.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Received a call from ROK FM Chung Eui-yong today. Discussed bilateral and multilateral issues as also the Hyundai matter.<\/p>&mdash; Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrSJaishankar\/status\/1490975347906547713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 8, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>SOURCE<\/strong>: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo: A member of Bajrang Dal, a Hindu supremacist group, shouts slogans in front of a KIA Motors showroom during in Ahmedabad Stores owned by several multinational companies have been forced to shut down by hardline Hindu groups in the Indian state of Gujarat after their Pakistan-based subsidiaries posted messages on social media in support [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}