Bharti Airtel Clears Their Stand on Secularism in a Reply to Pooja Singh, But The Damage is Already Done

Bharti Airtel is trying all ways possible to re-write the damage that has been caused. Aiming their best to resolve the outrage caused by bigotry showcased on Twitter, Airtel tweeted to Pooja Singh saying they did not differentiate between their customers or employees. The tweet came after a conversation between Singh and Airtel in which she asked for a "Hindu representative". The customer executive had already switched from Shoaib to Gaganjot following her demand before the clarification from the telecom operator five hours later.

After the tweet resulted in outrage on social media, Airtel replied to Pooja Singh saying, "Dear Pooja, at Airtel, we absolutely do not differentiate between customers, employees and partners on the basis of caste or religion. We would urge you to do the same. Both Shoaib and Gaganjot are part of our customer resolution team. If any customer contacts us for an ongoing service issue then the first available service executive responds in the interest of time. On your query, we will get back to you as soon as there is an update. Thanks - Himanshu, Airtel Response Team Lead."

Airtel received thorough backlash after the tweet went viral on social media. Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, actor Swara Bhaskar, author Chetan Bhagat tweeted against the brand's response on social media.

Here is Airtel's response:

Dear Pooja, at Airtel, we absolutely do not differentiate between customers, employees and partners on the basis of caste or religion. We would urge you to do the same. Both Shoaib and Gaganjot are part of our customer resolution team. (cont) https://t.co/lbwhRE95vm

— Bharti Airtel India (@Airtel_Presence) June 18, 2018

Check out Omar Abdullah'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

Check out Swara's Bhaskar's response:

Wow! @Airtel_Presence @airtelindia reading this sequence of tweets I have to say I’m ASHAMED to be your customer...Positively shameful response on your part to a clearly hateful and bigoted tweet that stands in opposition to humanity & the values of our constitution. Shame! pic.twitter.com/DyMITEDaeX

— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) June 18, 2018

Here is how Chetan Bhagat responded to the incident:

Dear sick ma’am. You have reached Airtel customer service. For Hindu press 1.. for upper caste press 2... for North Indian press 3.. for specific state press 4..congrats! You are responsible for dividing country and ensuring our politics stays about that and we remain 3rd world. https://t.co/cyOVqklYD6

— Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) June 19, 2018

Following the incident, Singh took to Twitter saying that she was being trolled and hurled abuses and shared screenshots of the messages sent to her. Twitterati mocked at the Airtel for not replying have a secular opinion in the first place. In a similar incident when an Ola customer said he would not drive with a Muslim driver, the app-based service gave him secularism lessons on Twitter. The stand by the cab company was hailed on social media.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 19, 2018 12:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).