After Tanishq pulled down an advertisement on inter-faith weddings citing threats to employees and apologised for hurting sentiments, inter-faith couples took to social media to share their experiences of being in a multicultural marriage.
Rasika Agashe, actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub's wife, shared a photo from her baby shower on Twitter to put forth a message about communal harmony.
Agashe wrote, "Let's learn about special marriage act," as she chose to put out her baby shower pictures in reaction to the ad that showed a Hindu woman's baby shower ceremony at her Muslim in-laws' place.
Actor Mini Mathur also gave her example of marrying director Kabir Khan. “This and even more love is what I have received in my multicultural marriage,” she wrote, calling for an end to the ‘hate’.
Mathur wrote, "By not speaking up, you are party to normalising of hate between communities. Also why and how does religion matter? What role does it/should it play in our generation?"
"I’d rather the world turn atheist that have hate as religion. And wanting peace and harmony in our country does not make me or any of us, less of a patriot,” she added.
Many on social media also spoke about their inter-faith marriages.
In a statement, Tanishq said it withdrew the film due to ‘hurt sentiments’. “The idea behind the Ekavatam campaign is to celebrate the coming together of people from different walks of life, local communities and families during these challenging times and celebrate the beauty of oneness. This film has stimulated divergent and severe reactions, contrary to its very objective. We are deeply saddened with the inadvertent stirring of emotions and withdraw this film keeping in mind the hurt sentiments and well being of our employees, partners and store staff".
Twitter was flooded with #BoycottTanishq tweets on Monday (12 October), with those trolling the brand claiming the ad promoted 'love jihad'. Soon after the social media storm, Tanishq took down the video from all its social media platforms.
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