The online Indian travel company MakeMyTrip was trolled on Twitter after one of the company's co-founder, Keyur Joshi made some comments on the Central government's ban on cattle slaughter. Amidst the ongoing controversy and political slugfest over the revised cattle trade rules, Joshi took to Twitter to express his opinion about the same.
In his tweets, he mentioned that if Hinduism is not letting him choose the food he eats, then he rather not be a Hindu. Joshi said he is vegetarian but will consume beef in India to support 'freedom of food'.
“I am a strong supporter of @narendramodi & a vegetarian for life. But I will now eat Beef only in India to support freedom of food,” tweeted Joshi. “ If Hinduism takes away right to choice of food, I rather not be a Hindu. @narendramodi @BJP4 India can’t decide what people eat,” said Joshi in another tweet.
His tweets invited severe criticism on Twitter and sparked a controversy. Users took to Twitter to vent out their anger. The hashtag #BoycottMakeMyTrip trended on Twitter with people uninstalling the MakeMyTrip app.
Soon after the backlash, Joshi withdrew his comments and apologised for the same. He said hs views were personal and not aimed at hurting any sentiments. Later, he took down his account from the micro-blogging site.
However, MakeMyTrip said that Joshi is no longer company’s employee. “MakeMyTrip is a responsible corporate citizen with very high regard and respect for the laws of the land and the esteemed government of India. Views expressed by Mr. Joshi on Twitter are completely personal and do not reflect MakeMyTrip's views in any way”, reported News 18.
This is not the first time when a company is getting trolled because of a tweet of its founder. Similar trolling was faced by Snapdeal following Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel's 'poor' remarks on India. Twitterati went nuts after hearing that the CEO of SnapChat apparently called India a poor nation. This time, trolls confused Snapdeal with Snapchat and the former company had to face the backlash for something they never did.
In the latest incident, though Joshi is not a present employee of MakeMyTrip, the trolls attacked the company presumably thinking he is still with the company.