One of the leading name in Jewellery, “Bhima Jewellers”, the biggest gold retailing firms in Kerala, seems to have pulled its advertisements from Mathrubhumi due to ‘controversies’ over the printing of a novel by the publication group.
Respecting and being concerned towards the societal sentiments, an official announcement was made on the jewellery group’s Facebook page, leading to be opposed fire from Hindu groups and many devotees for publishing the serialized version of ‘Meesha’!!
Bhima Jewellers official Facebook page read,
“This is in response to a few comments and queries appeared in our Facebook page as part of the comments pertaining to we giving advertisement in certain media. Kindly note our media plan is decided by our advertising agency based on circulation and readership. These proposals were approved few months early keeping Onam in mind and therefore it was scheduled well in advance by our advertising agency. Bhima, as you know, is a 94-year-old brand and a responsible business group. We give importance to public sentiments and wish to stay away from controversies of any kind. We have noted your concerns and have informed our advertising agency to put our ads to the publication concerned in abeyance.”
Quite a large number of crowd has appreciated this move by the Jeweller Brand while a few have equally threatened them for this move. A campaign against Bhima Jewellery is slowly gaining momentum on social media. These acts were probably expected to happen after this withdrawal. There were around 500 comments on that post, mostly people asking the jewellery store to boycott Mathrubhumi.
The Supreme Court reserved its order on a petition seeking to ban the circulation of the novel’s excerpts on the internet. The state and Central governments have opposed the plea.
Two days after, “Hareesh”, the writer of the Novel decided to withdraw the novel, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urged him to continue writing boldly, saying it will “serve as a reply to those who create controversy”!!
Former CM and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader VS Achuthanandan, and writers M Mukundan, K Satchidanandan, Anita Nair, Unni R and KR Meera have also come out in support of the novelist.
The novel ‘Meesha’ is written by a Malayalam writer S Hareesh was published in a serialised format in Mathrubhumi and it was portion in the July 11th issue of the periodical which sparked outrage as it had a conversation between two characters. One of the characters remarks that women dress up well while going to temples, to get into sexual relationships.
Stating that the parts published was offensive to temple going women and derogatory towards women in general, several people asked for the novel to be banned.After receiving death threats towards the content of the novel, the Writer decided to withdrew the novel from Mathrubhumi stating that he was too weak to fight it.
Talking about the Weekly, Mathrubhumi group runs Kerala’s second largest newspaper as well as one of the top television news channels in Malayalam. Mathrubhumi had earlier come under a similar attack in the year 2016 after it carried an audience feedback that alleged that the founder of a religion had married a six year old.
Source: Thenewsminute
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