CANBERRA: The Indian government has expressed disgust over a television advertisement featuring Hindu Lord Ganesha enjoying lamb. Produced by a meat industry lobby group, the advertisement shows a dozen religious figures seated at a barbecue lunch.
Ganesha is shown sharing a lamb lunch and red wine along with Jesus, Zeus, Aphrodite, L. Ron Hubbard, and a man in Jedi robes. Also at the table is the founder of Scientology, who when ticked off for mentioning religion protests, “I gave up dinner with Tom Cruise for this!” Aphrodite and Zeus are seen using their internet dating apps and at one point a guest jokes about “the elephant in the room”, and everybody laughs except Ganesha. Depiction of the elephant-headed lord in the short ad sparked several protests in Australia's Hindu community.
The Indian High Commission in Canberra protested to three Australian Federal government departments over the video that was launched by Meat and Livestock Australia. President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, said if the ad was not removed, “Hindus might think of a worldwide boycott of Australian lamb meat”. While members of the country's Hindu community almost immediately began to protest the ad once it was released, the Indian High Commission became involved a couple of days late. It released a statement saying the “offensive” ad “hurt the religious sentiments of the Indian community.” Zed said Ganesha should not be used in “selling lamb meat for mercantile greed.”
