‘Strongly committed to Indian customers’, says Hyundai in second apology after backlash over Kashmir tweet

New Delhi: South Korean auto major Hyundai Motor Company on Tuesday regretted the offense caused to Indians by “unauthorised Kashmir-related social media posts” by its distributor in Pakistan and said the action was against its global policy. On Sunday, Hyundai Motor India had faced backlash on social media, after a dealer of Hyundai in Pakistan posted a message supporting separatists in Kashmir, and #BoycottHyundai trended on Twitter in India with many people asking to stop buying the company’s products in the country. A Twitter account of a Hyundai dealer in Pakistan with handle @hyundaiPakistanOfficial had posted a message supporting Kashmir Solidarity Day, supporting what it called as “struggle for freedom”. “As a business policy, Hyundai Motor Company does not comment on political or religious issues in any specific region. Therefore it is clearly against the Hyundai Motor’s policy that the independently owned distributor in Pakistan made unauthorised Kashmir related social media posts from their own accounts,” the company said in a statement posted on social media. Stressing that Hyundai Motor Company has been investing in India for many decades and “remains strongly committed to Indian customers”, it said, “We deeply regret any offense caused to the people of India by this unofficial social media activity.”

Hyundai Motor statement:#Hyundai #HyundaiIndia pic.twitter.com/Ir5JzjS2XP

— Hyundai India (@HyundaiIndia) February 8, 2022

The company further said once the situation was brought to its attention, it made the distributor acutely aware of the “inappropriateness of the action”. “We have since taken measures to ensure the distributor which misused the Hyundai brand identity has removed the social media posts and we have put in place processes to prevent a future recurrence,” the statement said. Clarifying that its subsidiary, Hyundai Motor India, is not associated with the distributor in Pakistan, the company said, “We strongly reject the distributor’s unauthorised non business related social media activity.”

Earlier, the government had asked Hyundai Motors to be more forceful in its unequivocal apology, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said.

The commerce and industry minister speaking on the issue in Rajya Sabha said, “This issue has been taken up both with the government there and the company concerned. They (Hyundai) have already issued a clarification yesterday. We have also asked them to be more forceful in their unequivocal apology on this issue.”

The comments came after Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena said certain companies have been offering support and “posting content on Kashmir solidarity day observed by Pakistan”.

“The content they have posted on their platforms calls for freedom for Kashmir,” she said without naming Hyundai. Hyundai Motor India is the second-largest carmaker in the country after Maruti Suzuki India. It currently sells 12 models, including Creta and Venue in the domestic market. In December last year, the automaker announced plans to invest around Rs 4,000 crore to drive in around six electric vehicles in India by 2028. It is planning to roll out a mix of models based on its existing range as well as completely new vehicles based on its global platform ‘E-GMP’ over the next few years. Established in 1967, Hyundai Motor Company is present in over 200 countries with more than 1.2 lakh employees. On Monday, Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chain KFC apologised following outrage on social media over a post from its Pakistan-based franchise supporting separatists in Kashmir. Similarly, another QSR chain Pizza Hut also issued a statement saying “it does not condone, support or agree with the contents of a post circulating in social media” after facing backlash over an Instagram post on Kashmir by its official handle in Pakistan.

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