Fortune’s Vishnu Avatar of Amazon’s President Bezos hurts Hindu sentiments

The decision by Fortune Magazine to depict Amazon President Jeffrey P Bezos as Lord Vishu for their January edition cover has irked members of the Hindu Community. The story titled ‘Amazon invades India’ talks about Amazon’s plans for India and how it hopes to conquer the market in the country.

Rajan Zed, the President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said in statement that Lord Vishnu was a highly revered major deity in Hinduism meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be used indecorously or thrown around loosely in re-imagined versions for dramatic effects.

He questioned how a mortal could be depicted as Lord Vishnu and added that inappropriate usage of Hinduism concepts and symbols for pushing selfish agenda or mercantile greed was not okay.

Rajan Zed, calling it an unnecessary dragging of a Hindu deity to prove their point of view, urged Fortune to publish a disclaimer about this on its website and the next issue with proper explanation of Lord Vishnu and Hinduism.

Zed stressed that Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it not be taken frivolously. No faith, larger or smaller, should be ridiculed at.

He added that as a community Hindus welcomed such an idea of media immersing itself in Hinduism but not just for improper symbolism of of Hinduism and its concepts to advance their commercial agenda.

This edition of Fortune cover page was created by Sydney based illustrator Nigel Buchanan.

Source : New Indian Express