Indians were outraged by a tweet from a Pakistani partner’s account that expressed support with the people of India’s illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, prompting demands for a boycott of Hyundai cars on Monday (IIOJK).
Hundreds of Indian social media users joined boycott demands, saying Hyundai should apologize for being insensitive to India’s decades-old claim.
The issue arose on Sunday, a day after Pakistan commemorated its annual Kashmir Solidarity Day, with posts from Hyundai’s partner Nishat Group on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram honoring Kashmiris fighting for self-determination.
Hundreds of Indians have expressed their desire to cancel Hyundai car orders in order to penalize the corporation, while pushing support for domestic companies such as Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra.
Hyundai’s India unit responded by stating that
Ashutosh Soni, an Indian Twitter user, said he had cancelled his reservation for Hyundai’s Verna sedan, which was scheduled to be delivered this month, and instead ordered a vehicle from rival Honda Motor.
Soni tweeted on Sunday, “#BoycottHyundai, that’s it!” accompanied with a photo of himself receiving a new Honda automobile.
“Let’s put them out of business.” With a snapshot of a drop in Hyundai’s share price on Monday, filmmaker and social activist Ashoke Pandit wrote on Twitter, “India is one of the major markets for cars.”
Concerns regarding record numbers of Covid-19 cases in South Korea, as well as persistent concerns that a global semiconductor shortage will hurt production and sales, caused Hyundai’s stock to fall 1.25 percent on Monday, outperforming Seoul’s benchmark index.
The controversy over the social media post exemplifies the dangers that global corporations confront in the face of increasing nationalism in the region.
Similar requests for a boycott of Chinese goods have been made by Indian Twitter users in the past, following a border skirmish between the two Asian powers that impacted automobile supply networks and other industries.
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After its international website was discovered selling merchandise with the faces of Hindu gods and other religious symbols, Amazon experienced social media outrage in India.
