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Flipkart tailors ad, Gorkhas want it pulled

New Delhi: Online retailer Flipkart reworked a group of ads that have prompted a court case against the "stereotyping" of Gorkhas, but the petitioners said they would not stop till the "racist" promotion campaign was withdrawn. One of the petitioners, writer Dinesh Sharma, found Flipkart's response "flippant". He said: "We will continue to fight and are ready to take this all the way to the Supreme Court and ensure that the stereotyping of any community, and not just Gorkhas, in a derogatory fashion is put to an end once for all." For a week now, the Gorkha Youth and Students Association of India and the Hamro Swabhiman Trust - two of the petitioners - have been mobilising opinion against the print and TV ads for the launch of Flipkart Assured, a service that promises quality products and fast delivery. One of the ads, the petitioners say, shows a boy wearing a belt that prominently says "security" and a Nepali cap that carries a badge shaped like a khukuri, a traditional Nepali knife. The boy speaks in Hindi with an exaggerated accent. "Thus a security guard has been depicted as a professional icon of the Nepali community, creating a stereotype affecting all Indian Gorkhas," Sharma said. Protesting Gorkhas first undertook a campaign on social media and when that did not yield results, they moved a petition at a Delhi district court on Saturday. A police complaint has also been filed and its copies sent to several Union ministers, the National Human Rights Commission, the army chief and several political and student groups, including the Gorkha National Liberation Front. Flipkart reacted for the first time today with "a note to our Gorkha brothers and sisters". It acknowledged that "we may have unintentionally hurt" sentiments "through the depiction of one of the characters in the advertisement, namely the security guard". It explained: "Foremost, we're proud of and grateful to the Gorkha community. They symbolise valour, reliability, integrity and loyalty. Many members of the Gorkha community continue to represent our nation in the highest echelons of their chosen field - be it administration, sports, defence, academics, entertainment, etc. Some of them have also chosen this profession of a security guard. "A security guard is someone we trust with our life. Every day. We trust our security guards to let the right people into our homes. We trust them with our children's safety when they're outdoors. We trust them to ensure that we sleep safe every night. The campaign drew from these codes of assurance to drive the key proposition of Flipkart Assured. It is with this intent that the character which the child portrayed was chosen to play the part." Flipkart said it had updated the ads to remove the khukuri and "suitably" changed the voices of the characters. It said the updated films had been uploaded on its social channels and would be updated across all other channels over the next few days. "Our intent has never been to stereotype or typecast any community and hurt their sentiments in any manner. Rather, it has always been to celebrate the diversity and nuances that are unique to us as Indians," the company said. Flipkart indicated it had been aware of the controversy the whole of the past week and invoked the "freedom of creative expression and choice of characters". It urged "Gorkha friends" to "enjoy the innocent humour of the communication". -The Telegraph, Calcutta Here's a video report uploaded by a user on YouTube about the ad:  Disclaimer: ABP News does not endorse the views expressed in the video. 
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