Woman asks for 'Hindu' representative from Airtel, Twitter questions 'bigotry'
Telecom giant Airtel landed in a bit of a soup on Monday evening after it accepted a woman’s outrageous request for a Hindu customer service person.
The woman posted on Twitter that she did not want to interact with a customer resolution officer as he was a Muslim. In response to this tweet, a man named Gaganjot took the conversation forward, leading many to accuse the company of not standing up to 'bigotry.'
The exchange on Twitter enraged users. Among those who called out the company was former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who said he wouldn't "pay another penny to the company".
Hey, I most definitely appreciate you reaching out here! We’ll take a closer look into that & get back shortly with more information. Thank you, Shoaib
— Bharti Airtel India (@Airtel_Presence) June 18, 2018
Hi Pooja! As discussed, please let me know what days & time frames work best for you so we can talk. Further, please share an alternate number so that I can assist you further with this. Thank you, Gaganjot
— Bharti Airtel India (@Airtel_Presence) June 18, 2018
Airtel, responding to the angry posts, said in a statement: "We absolutely do not differentiate between customers, employees and partners on the basis of caste or religion."
The woman, Pooja Singh, whose Twitter handle declares her to be a management professional and a ‘Proud Indian’ and a ‘Proud Hindu’ had earlier complained about a service engineer. Within minutes the tweet conversation went viral.
Actress Gauahar Khan was seen responding to Singh's tweet,
Be careful! Pls see your ophthalmologist soon !! U are blinded by hatred !!! U couldn’t even spell his name right in a reply, !! N it’s the Quran BTW !! Agar nafrat se dimaag nahi kharaab hua hota toh shayad education mein basic spellings toh pata hi hoti!! 😡ðŸ˜
— Gauahar Khan (@GAUAHAR_KHAN) June 18, 2018
Another user Mehek, could not help but troll Pooja for her baseless comments,
Pooja is so Hindu, she doesn't use Petrol/diesel in her car as it comes from Muslim countries, runs it only on Gobargas.
— Mehek (@MehekF) June 18, 2018
And Twitter users did not spare Airtel either,
Hey Gaganjot... Mark this Tweet... now that ur company has given into racial bigotry i shall port my number outta Airtel and make sure atleast 25 of my friends to d same to.. shall forward numbers i helped port soon.. GOOD LUCK
— Girish Khubani (@girishkhubani) June 18, 2018
Arun Srinranga tweeted,
Hi guys. Can you please let me know how to initiate the closure of my Airtel broadband account ? I can't use services provided by a firm which can't stand up to bigotry!
— Arun Sriranga (@Arun_Sriranga) June 18, 2018
Last but not least, Omar Abdullah too could not hide his outrage at Twitter's response,
Dear @Airtel_Presence this conversation is genuine (I’ve seen the timeline myself). I refuse to pay another penny to a company that condones such blatant bigotry. I’m beginning the process of porting my number to another service provider & canceling my DTH & Broadband. pic.twitter.com/BZxJOaEsN6
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) June 18, 2018
