India’s reaction to an Amazon.com website selling doormats resembling the country’s flag involved an unprecedented public and private offensive against the US company by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, a document shows.
Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj publicly threatened in January to rescind visas of Amazon employees if the doormats were not removed from its Canadian website.
But a document seen by Reuters shows the government went even further in private, asking its US and Canadian embassies to raise the matter “strongly” with Amazon’s senior leadership.
India also escalated the matter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and prompted a global audit by the company to “ensure that such products are not listed on any of its other” websites around the world, according to the document.
Amazon, which removed the products within 24 hours and apologised to the government, declined to comment.
Amazon has now made Indian laws that govern the use of the national flag and other emblems “an integral part of the global compliance process,” the document said, outlining the steps Amazon and India have taken since the incident.
India’s reaction underscores the risks governments run by nationalist leaders are posing for businesses around the world. US President Donald Trump, for example, has also taken an aggressive stance on Twitter against individual companies.
“Amazon India has conveyed that it is fully committed to respecting Indian laws and customs,” the document said.