Amul Topical on boycott Chinese products

Micro-blogging site Twitter temporarily restricted the official handle of Indian dairy major Amul over its 'exit the dragon' topical that commented on the general sentiment, days ahead of the much-anticipated high-level India-China talks to resolve the Ladakh border dispute

The account was restored later.

The tweet in question was an Amul Topical (a witty comment on current events through graphics) that referred to Indians boycotting the products made in China with a text that read 'Exit the Dragon?" It showed the Amul girl in confrontation with a dragon. Behind the dragon, a logo of the Chinese video-sharing platform can also be seen.

Amul is known for its creatives on global and local topics that made headlines. Amul's latest creative take focuses on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for "Aatmanirbharta (Self-Reliance)" and the rising anti-Chinese sentiments days ahead of the much-anticipated high-level India-China talks to resolve the Ladakh border dispute.

Amul is known for its creatives on global and local topics that made headlines. Amul's latest creative take focuses on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for "Aatmanirbharta (Self-Reliance)" and the rising anti-Chinese sentiments.
Informing about the development, the daily major issued a statement, saying that the account was deactivated with any prior intimation. 

"Amul's twitter account @amul_coop was temporarily deactivated on the late night of 4th June after our Amul Topical on "Boycott of Chinese Products" with the copy "Exit the Dragon?" 3rd June 2020. This happened without prior intimation to us," read the statement.

"On the morning of 5th June, we complied with the process to reactivate our account and we were live. Our followers were not able to see the above mentioned topical on due to deactivation and they came out in support of Amul and were upset with this behaviour of Twitter" it added.

The company also said that it had sought an explanation from Twitter for the deactivation.

"We have taken up with Twitter to know the reasons of their action. Amul Topical started in 1966 and since then 1st topical has been an observer of events/moments local, national and international. Our Amul Moppet which features in our Amul Topical has reported these various events which have an impact on the live of people,” it said.

“Amul Topicals are a chronicler of events/moments worldwide from the elections of PMs and Presidents, Brexit, lockdown due to COVID-19, sports events, movies to 1st time airing of Ramayana and Mahabharat in 1987 and 1989 to even events like Emergency in India in 1976," the statement read.

It further clarified that its creatives are published with an unbiased opinion.

"Amul Topicals function like any news channel/publication and reports the event/moment without having a biased opinion. The said topical is also a remark/question on the events taking place without influencing viewers with any mala fide intentions," Amul's statement said.

On the other hand, Twitter denied deactivating the account for the content published and said that the action was taken for the safety and security of the Amul account.

Anti-Chinese sentiments increased in India gathered steam after another face-off between Indian and Chinese forces along the line of actual control in Ladakh apart from the controversy over the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak.

China is being held responsible for the spiralled out proportion of the pandemic because it allegedly delayed the release of information on the new disease on purpose.