Bollywood actress Sunny Leone drew the ire of Surat-based Hindu Yuva Vahini on Tuesday for featuring in a billboard advertisement for Manforce, promoting safe sex. The Hindu-fringe group also staged a protest in Surat, condemning the advertisement and demanding that it be pulled down.
According to Times of India, the members of the Yuva Vahini felt that the advertisement hurt their religious sentiments on Navratri.
The group’s head Narendra Chaudary told the daily:
The message in Gujarati on the hoarding reads ‘Aa Navratri a ramo, parantu premthi’ - this Navratri, play but with love. The insinuation on the hoardings from a condom brand insults the religious sentiments of Hindus.
He reportedly added that such hoardings must be removed “immediately” from across the city and that protests would continue until they are removed.
The Confederation of All India Traders, in a letter to the Minister for Consumer Affairs – Ram Vilas Paswan, have demanded that they take the hoarding down, and have termed the advertisement an “irresponsible tactic”. The letter accused that Leone “can go to any level irrespective of pious and religious occasion of Navratri”.
“This is a clear irresponsible and immature attempt to boost sales by putting all our cultural value system at stake,” the letter said.
(With inputs from Times of India)
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