New Delhi

The controversy over the south Korean MNC Hyundai issuing an anti-India poster on February 5 in support of Pakistan’s “Kashmir Solidarity Day” and Indians threatening to boycott the company’s vehicles has snowballed into a major diplomatic row between the two countries

 

On Tuesday External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar spoke on the telephone with his South Korean counterpart Chung Eui-Yong and they discussed the India-South Korean bilateral ties and also the recent controversy over a social media post of Hyundai Pakistan regarding Kashmir.

 

 "Received a call from ROK FM Chung Eui-Yong today. Discussed bilateral and multilateral issues as also the Hyundai matter," tweeted Jaishankar.

 

Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson, MEA said: "Foreign Minister of Republic of Korea Chung Eui-Yong called External Affairs Minister. While they discussed several issues, the ROK Foreign Minister also conveyed that they regretted the offense caused to the people and Government of India by the social media post."

 

Commenting on the issue, Bagchi said "We had seen a social media post on the so-called Kashmir Solidarity Day was made by Hyundai Pakistan. Immediately after this social media post on Sunday, 6 February 2022, our Ambassador in Seoul contacted the Hyundai Headquarters and sought an explanation. The offending post had been removed subsequently.”

 

He also said the Korean ambassador was summoned by the MEA on Monday and conveyed the strong displeasure of the Indian government on the unacceptable social media post by Hyundai Pakistan. He was told that this matter concerned India's territorial integrity on which there could be no compromise. 

 

A statement issued by MEA said, “We expected the Company to take appropriate action to properly address these issues.”

 

"India welcomes investments by foreign companies in various sectors. But, it is also expected that such companies or their affiliates will refrain from false and misleading comments on matters of sovereignty and territorial integrity," it read.

 

In the meanwhile, Hyundai has also issued a fresh statement on the row and it reads:

 

“As a business policy, Hyundai Motor Company does not comment on political or religious issues in any specific region. Therefore, it is clearly against Hyundai Motor's policy that the independently-owned distributor in Pakistan made unauthorized Kashmir-related social media posts from their accounts.

 

“Once the situation was brought to our attention, we 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. Our subsidiary, Hyundai Motor India, is not associated with the distributor in Pakistan, and we strongly reject the distributor's unauthorized non-business-related social media activity.

 

“Hyundai Motor Company has been investing in India for many decades and remains strongly committed to Indian customers. We deeply regret any offense caused to the people of India by this unofficial social media activity.”   

 

Indians had poured their anger against Hyundai Pakistan’s post due to which the Boycott Hyundai was trending for two days on Twitter India.