Piyush Goyal asks Hyundai to be more 'forceful in apology' over Kashmir posts

Following the controversial tweet posted by a Hyundai Pakistan dealer supporting 'Kashmir Solidarity Day', Piyush Goyal, Cabinet Minister for Textiles, Commerce and Industry has said that the Centre "has asked the company to be more forceful in unequivocal apology."

"This issue has been taken up both with the government there and the company concerned," Goyal said. "They (Hyundai) have already issued a clarification yesterday. We have also asked them to be more forceful in their unequivocal apology on this issue."

The since deleted post was shared on Hyundai Pakistan's social media handle, which belongs to a dealer principal with outlets across Pakistan.

On February 5, a Twitter account belonging to Hyundai Nishat Motor Pvt. Ltd, a dealer principal with outlets across Pakistan, had put out a post on 'Kashmir Solidarity Day,' supporting the separatists in Kashmir. The tweet went viral in no time, and it didn't take long for the hashtag #boycotthyundai to trend on the social media platform.

In response, Hyundai Motor India had released an official statement, which said, "Hyundai Motor India has been committed to the Indian market for more than 25 years now and we stand firmly for our strong ethos of respecting nationalism.

"We have a zero-tolerance policy towards insensitive communication, and we strongly condemn any such view. As part of our commitment to India, we will continue our efforts towards the betterment of the country as well as its citizens."

Now, Hyundai India has released a new statement, clearly defining the situation it is addressing and says that it has taken necessary actions.

The company's latest statement says - "As a business policy, Hyundai Motor Company does not comment on political and religious issues in any specific region. Therefore, it is clearly against Hyundai Motor's policy that the independently-owned distributor in Pakistan made unauthorised Kashmir-related social media post from their own accounts."

The company further said once the situation was brought to its attention, it made the distributor acutely aware of the "inappropriateness of the action".

"We have since taken measures to ensure the distributor which misused the Hyundai brand identity has removed the social media posts and we have put in place processes to prevent a future recurrence," the statement said.

Clarifying that its subsidiary, Hyundai Motor India, is not associated with the distributor in Pakistan, the company said, "We strongly reject the distributor's unauthorised non business related social media activity."