In the latest development to the S Hareesh controversy, famed jewellery group Bhima Jewellers decided to with draw its advertisements from Mathrubhumi group of publications. This has come after tremendous pressure from Hindu right wingers who came down heavily on Mathrubhumi for publishing his novel Meesha (Moustache).

Only three chapters of writer S Hareesh’s novel Meesha had been published when the threats from Hindutva organisations forced him to withdraw his novel.

In a Facebook post a couple of days ago, without naming the newspaper, Bhima Jewellers had mentioned that “Bhima, as you know, is a 94-year-old brand and a responsible business group. We give importance to public sentiments and wish to stay away from controversies of any kind. We have noted your concerns and have informed our advertising agency to put our ads to the publication concerned in abeyance.”

Bhima Jewellers has claimed on their FB page that there had been many comments to withdraw their ads from the paper. There were around 600 comments for their August 4 and 5 advertisements, where most of them had asked the group to ‘boycott Mathrubhumi’, but there were a few other posts that derided Mathrubhumi’s decision to do so. The trolls warned that they would ask supporters to boycott Bhima showrooms in all districts.