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Opinion: Airtel incident emphasises on need for brands to take a firm stand against religious bigotry

New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaWritten By: Aditi GautamUpdated: Jun 22, 2018, 10:44 AM IST
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File photo: A Bharti Airtel office building is pictured in Gurugram. Photograph:(Reuters)

Telecom giant Airtel today tried to downplay the incident wherein a customer blatantly asked for a 'Hindu representative' to resolve her issue, and she even got a response.

The statement released by Airtel claimed that one customer executive taking up the case of another without checking his colleague's religious identity was being misconstrued as the company's acceptance of religious discrimination.

Airtel said that it did not change the representative as an obligation to the customer. The Hindu representative took up the service request because his Muslim colleague, who was earlier dealing with the customer, was not logged in.

This appears unconvincing because the telecom operator had given a lukewarm response on Monday as well after it landed in a huge controversy.

It's only when the incident went viral on social media and people started criticising the company for switching executives based on customer's religious preference, the company issued a clarification on Twitter,  "We absolutely do not differentiate between customers, employees and partners on the basis of caste or religion."

By bowing down to an offensive discriminatory request, the company has given an idea that for it only revenue matters, and not sentiments.

A leading telecommunications company like Airtel should set an example for others, by prohibiting any discrimination based on religion, caste and ethnicity. Company employees should be made aware of the types of discrimination that need to be objected to.

Also, it should understand that a simple sorry always works, and is way better than an unconvincing cover-up.

Last month, Starbucks faced backlash over the treatment of black customers at some of its stores. Without any delay, the coffee chain closed its 8,000 US stores to provide unconscious-bias training to its employees.

In another instance, JW Mariott Marquis Hotel in Dubai where celebrity chef Atul Kochhar successfully ran his restaurant Rang Darbar, was quick to distance itself from chef's 'anti-Islam' remark when he trolled actress Priyanka Chopra for Hindu terror plot in her serial Quantico. 

Following massive outrage, the hotel terminated Kochhar's contract.

Ola too faced a similar crisis when a cab driver refused to ferry Muslim customer to Jamia Nagar. After the man shared his ordeal on social media, Ola had to put out a statement that it doesn't support any sort of discrimination. 

This trend clearly indicates that consumers expect brands to be responsible and take stand against hate speech and bigotry. Hence, there is an urgent need for organisations to put in place proper anti-discrimination policies.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)