CHICAGO: Hugely upset and angry at the trivialization of revered Hindu God Lord Ganesha, a large number of Hindus in this country have urged Belgium based The Musketeers Brewery to apologize and withdraw image of Lord Ganesha from its Jack’s Precious IPA beer label.
Lord Ganesha’s image is shown on Jack’s Precious IPA (Alcohol: 5.9%, EBC: 20, IBU: 50) beer label carrying chef knife in one hand and sausage like object on the other, and brewery’s trade mark symbol on his head; a product of Ursel (East Flanders, Belgium) headquartered The Musketeers Brewery.
Calling it highly inappropriate and insulting to the feelings of Indians here, the founding members of NRI Press Club Surendra Ullal and Madhu Patel said that this type of trifling with Hindu deities has become a past time with many a non-Indian firms and “all of us need to be united to fight this type of cheap; commercialization on the part of corporate giants.”
Rajan Zed, president of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement said that Lord Ganesha was highly revered in Hinduism and he was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be used in selling beer for mercantile greed. Moreover, linking Lord Ganesha with an alcoholic beverage was very disrespectful, Zed added.
Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, large or small, should not be mishandled, Rajan Zed noted.
In Hinduism, Lord Ganesha is worshipped as god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and is invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking.
Suresh Shah
