The Union government of India has summoned the ambassador of the Republic of Korea, on Tuesday to discuss the issue regarding the major row over a social media post on the Kashmir Solidarity Day by the Twitter handle of Hyundai Pakistan.
As per the official statement by the Ministry of External Affairs has said that the government has expressed its strong displeasure over the unacceptable social media post to the ambassador. The statement issued by the government of India has highlighted that the matter was concerned with the territorial integrity of the nation which will not be compromised at any cost.
The spokesperson from the Ministry of External Affairs, Arindam Bagchi took to his Twitter to state that the company is expected to take appropriate measures to properly address the concerned issue. In response to the statement, the South Korean Hyundai Motors had expressed regret for the tweet by its Pakistani partner stating that it was unauthorised and it has been deleted after it was criticised heavily.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar from the Ministry of External Affairs spoke on phone with the Foreign Minister of South Korea, Chung Euiyong, and the Korean counterpart expressed his regret over the issue. They discussed various issues on the phone, the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea said that they deeply regret the offence caused to the people of India and the government as well, for the social media post, as per Bagchi’s statement.
Bagchi further stated that India always welcomes investments by foreign companies in several sectors but they are expected along with their affiliates will refrain from false and misleading comments on matters related to the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the country.
It all started on Sunday, one day after Pakistan had marked the annual Kashmir Solidarity Day and there were posts on social media on behalf of Hyundai’s partner Group, Nishat Group surfaced on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The posts commemorated the sacrifices made by the people of Kashmir who were struggling for Self-Determination.
As soon as the posts appeared on various social media platforms, hundreds of users in India called for a boycott of the brand stating that Hyundai must apologise for being insensitive towards India’s position on the dispute that is going on for decades. The #Boycotthyundai was trending on top on Twitter on Monday, like people demanding the dumping of the carmaker in the country and were encouraged to choose Tata Motors instead.
Hyundai was not the only brand that faced backlash for offensive posts. Other consumer brands such as KFC, Kia also were subjected to backlash on various social media platforms over tweets by their outlets in Pakistan. After the boycotts gained momentum, the South Korean based firm issued a statement mentioning that it had a zero-tolerance policy towards any insensitive communication and they further said that any such view was strongly condemned by the company.