HDFC draws fire from ‘right wing’

NEW DELHI: HDFC faced a backlash on social media on Wednesday after it said it would take “appropriate” action against one of its employees for posting “divisive and insensitive comments”.The employee, Akshay Lahoti, had asked Indian Muslims to go to Pakistan. The company’s stand, however, was criticised by some social media users on Twitter , who declared that they would “boycott” the bank if it took action against Lahoti.Lahoti, in a Facebook post, which was highlighted by popular satire page Humans of Hindutva , wrote that there should be a “Brexit style referendum to decide if India should remain a secular country and Muslims should be allowed to stay in India, especially when Pakistan was created for Muslims.”“A bunch of elitist (sic) decided that India should be a secular country... Given a choice, I am extremely confident that an overwhelming majority of Hindus would vote against Muslims being given Indian citizenship," wrote Lahoti.A screenshot of Lahoti’s post was shared by a French news agency fact checker and Twitter user Uzair Hasan Rizvi, who tagged HDFC in his tweet on Tuesday. “Hello @HDFCBank_Cares this person Akshay Lahoti claims to work for @HDFCLIFE wants a referendum on religion. His post is both Islamophobic & Xenophobic. His views reflect hatred, as a Muslim, I will have to think twice before using ur services. Ppl like him will be biased to me,” he wrote from his official handle @RizviUzairHDFC replied to Rizvi’s tweet, “A post has been brought to our attention on social media. The person in question is an employee of our group company @HDFCLIFE. We’ve brought it to their notice for appropriate action. As an organisation, and as a group, we strongly condemn such divisive and insensitive comments.”The company’s tweets, however, created social media outrage, with the hashtag Boycott HDFC trendingon Twitterthrough the afternoon.“Let me warn you HDFC, if you take any action against the patriot Akshay Lahoti be ready to face #BoycottHDFC by major class of Hindus. And trust me you can’t survive in Indian market with only Muslim customers,” wrote Chowkidar Upasana Singh, who goes by the handle @upasanatigress on Twitter.Another user, Vishva Tyagi tweeted, “I was thinking of closing my HDFC credit card. Now you have given me a reason to go forward with it, if u take any action against Akshay.”