Greenply Industries Ltd. removes advertisement denigrating Hindu Guru-Shishya tradition

Success of Hindus !

Greenply Industries Limited is India’s interior infrastructure company. Greenply manufactures various interior infrastructure products such as plywood, block board, decorative laminates, decorative veneers, medium-density fiberboards, laminate flooring and restroom cubicles. In one of their advertisements they have used Guru-Shishya tradition to spread the message – ‘Ask Greenply – Dhongi Baba Ka Non Veg’, resulting in the denigration of the concept of Guru, Guru-Shishya tradition and Hinduism. 

Alert Hindus notified Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), about this denigration of Guru, Guru-Shishya tradition and Hinduism. Accordingly, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti wrote to Greenply asking them to remove the denigrating advertisement from the electronic media including YouTube. (The letter explaining the denigration is published on the latter part of this page.)

We have found that Greenply Industries has removed its denigratory advertisement from their YouTube channel. Greenply Industries can make a note of this and not make such advertisements in the future which will hurt the sentiments of Hindus.

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Please see below the email sent by HJS to the Greenply Industries Limited

From: Hindu Jagruti
Date: Thu, Jul 2, 2015 at 10:46 AM
Subject: Complaints regarding your advertisement !
To: [email protected], [email protected]

Namaskar, 

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) is a registered NGO in India working for Hindu Dharma and also for society and national welfare. The Samiti is active throughout the world, educating people about Hindu Dharma in a scientific way, campaigning against malpractices done in the name of Hindu Dharma and solving problems related to the misrepresentation of Hindu Dharma. For further details please refer to our website www.HinduJagruti.org. 

We at Hindu Janajagruti Samiti have received several complaints from devout Hindus regarding the insulting picturization of a Hindu Guru, in the advertisement “Ask Greenply – Dhongi Baba Ka Non Veg”, which is a very offensive and degrading way to market and sell your product- plywood.

This commercial can be viewed on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atb7qyFN500. 

We are sending this appeal letter to notify you regarding the humiliating and despicable representation of a Hindu Guru as presented in the Ask Greenply advertisement. In Hinduism, a Guru is highly revered and is considered to be the supreme authority in knowledge and spreading spirituality. The Guru is accorded the highest reverence, and is equated with God. In Bharat, the Guru-Shishya tradition has been in existence for thousands of years and has played a significant role in the preservation of Hindu Dharma and the passing of knowledge and traditions from one generation to another. It has also contributed greatly to the survival and continuity of Hinduism even in the most turbulent times.

However, your advertisement has denigrated the perception of a Hindu Guru by presenting Him as a phony religious spiritual guide eating non-vegetarian (Tamasik) food. This leads to insulting and tarnishing the noble image of a Hindu Guru and Hinduism.  The greatest gift of God to human beings is a Guru, Who guides one to the ultimate happiness and Bliss, that is, Moksha. All the disciples and devotees as well as seekers are deeply hurt by such an advertisement.

You may have made this advertisement unknowingly; however, hurting religious feelings leads to an offence as per the Indian Penal Code section 295A.            

We at Hindu Janajagruti Samiti have campaigned to educate people about such denigration that occurs through various products, and after learning about the denigration, many companies have removed the Deities’ pictures from their products. Please refer to our website https://www.hindujagruti.org/hjs-activities/stop-adharma-practices to see our ongoing and successful awareness campaigns against the denigration of Hindu Dharma. 

We urge you to consider the above points and remove the Greenply commercial – “Ask Greenply – Dhongi Baba Ka Non Veg” immediately from the electronic media including YouTube to prevent further denigration of the highly revered image of a Hindu Guru.  

We stress that our aim in bringing up these points is to educate and ensure that the Guru and Hinduism gets accurately represented in society. Hinduism has been misrepresented at many levels. You can take one step towards ensuring that the Guru and Hinduism do not get disgraced by discontinuing the Greenply advertisement. 

Sincerely,

Hindu Janajagruti Samiti