NEW DELHI:
Bharti Airtel on Monday issued a clarification after one of its customers refused to be attended by a Muslim representative and demanded that her concerns should be addressed only by a Hindu employee of the company.
The telecom giant responded to the Twitter user's request by saying that it doesn't discriminate on the basis of caste or religion.
The incident happened when a user, who goes on Twitter as @pooja303singh, contacted Airtel earlier today to file a complaint of "misbehaviour" by one of the employees of the telecom company when she was contacted regarding an issue with her DTH connection.
Her concerns were addressed by an Airtel employee named Shoaib. However, the girl was not pleased with the prospect of a Muslim man addressing her concern. She promptly demanded that a Hindu representative should be assigned to look after her request.
Following which she received a response from another Airtel employee by the name of Gaganjot:
"Hi, let me check that out for you. I don't want to keep you waiting another minute! Please DM your 10 digit DTH ID along with your contact number via the link here, and we will connect with you to assist. Thank you, Gaganjot."
The Airtel response was considered as an "acceptance" of bigotry and hatred by several online users, including former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister
Omar Abdullah.
"I refuse to pay another penny to a company that condones such blatant bigotry. I’m beginning the process of porting my number to another service provider and cancelling my DTH and Broadband," Abdullah tweeted.
"I've Airtel mobile, landline and Wi-Fi connections. We all know you can't give good 2G, 3G & 4G. Now we know that you don't have even 1 G i.e. Guts to stand up to bigots like Pooja who perhaps never had the good fortune of having Muslim friends and hence has flawed knowledge of Islam," a customer flayed Airtel.
Almost nine hours later, Airtel India issued a clarification - "We do not differentiate on the basis of religion. Both Shoaib and Gaganjot are part of our customer resolution team."
However, Twitter was not pleased with the reply which was issued almost nine hours after the customer’s hate-filled tweet.
"Too little, too late," wrote a customer as he announced that he has already moved to a different service provider.
"It took them five hours to type five lines. Airtel is a very fast network," a Twitter user mocked the service provider.
Several users also demanded that the company should terminate its services to the customer.
