Doesn’t say if it will withdraw product in India.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW YORK: A Connecticut brewery, New England Brewing Company, has apologized for displaying Mahatma Gandhi’s image on its most popular product, a pale ale named Gandhi-Bot, but has not indicated whether it will withdraw the product from India where a suit was filed in Andhra Pradesh last week.
The brewery has doubled its production of Gandhi-Bot every year since it was released, reported the Hartford Courant.
Gandhi’s name does stick out in its line of beers, when one takes a look at the other titles brought out by the brewery: Fuzzy Baby Ducks, Sea Hag, Imperial Stout Trooper, Elm City Lager, 668 The Neighbor of the Beast, and Wet Willie.
A private petition was filed by an advocate in Nampally court against the brewery, reported the Deccan Chronicle earlier.
Advocate S. Janardhan Goud in his petition gave the description of the beer also: “Gandhi-Bot is an intensely hopped Double India Pale Ale, with a blend of three varieties of American hops. Aromatic and fully vegetarian.” He then added: “This is highly condemnable and punishable, according to Indian Laws and amounts to offence under Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act,1971, and Section 124-A of IPC. It is an insult to Mahatma Gandhi.”
Goud also told NewsX: “This is nothing but insult to the Indians, nothing but insult to the Indian constitution.”
Responding to the suit, the Woodbridge beer-maker issued an apology this past Friday, with the following statement on its Facebook page: “We apologize to any Indian people that find our Gandhi-Bot label offensive. Our intent is not to offend anyone but rather pay homage and celebrate a man who we respect greatly. We take great care in creating a product we hope will not be abused in the manner that Mahatma Gandhi spoke of when referencing alcohol. So many Indian people here in America love our tribute to him.”
The brewery said that Gandhi’s grandson and granddaughter have seen and admired the label. It was not clear which grandson and granddaughter of Gandhi had endorsed the image on the beer label.
The company says on its website that the Gandhi-Bot beer is an “ideal aid for self-purification and the seeking of truth and love”.
Gandhi was a teetotaler and was against people imbibing alcohol.
Located in a blue and white building behind a Jaguar dealership in Woodbridge, New England Brewing has five employees, who produce about 8,000 barrels of beer in 2014, with plans to make as much as 14,000 barrels in 2015, reported the Courant.
New England Brewing has felt friction over its beer label before. Its Imperial Stout Trooper label featured a Star Wars stormtrooper helmet, which resulted in a cease-and-desist letter from Lucas Films.
In response, the brewery disguised the stormtrooper helmet with Groucho Marx glasses — the comical empty frames with fluffy eyebrows, a nose and moustache.
The Associated Press reported a Hartford lawyer Proloy K. Das tweeting that Connecticut “should be ashamed to be home” to New England Brewing.
The BBC reported Matt Westfall, head brewer and partner at the Connecticut-based company saying in an email to the Press Trust of India that he hoped the product inspired people “to learn more about Mahatma Gandhi and his non-violent methods of civil disobedience. So many Indian people here in America love our tribute to the great man.”
He added: “We hope that you understand our true intent and respect the method and the freedom we have to show our reverence for Gandhi.”
1 Comment
There is no EXCUSE for this BLATANT ERROR of commercializing the Name of the Father of the Nation of a Country. This should be met with HEAVY FINE IN LOCAL CURRENCY PUNITIVE so that some other copy cat will not START this somewhere. Tell that Company FIRE if you touch KNOWINGLY or UN KNOWINGLY will BURN who ever touches. No one can INSULT a person of the Stature who is respected all over the world cannot slip away with lame excuse.