Vadodara: While posters, demonstrations and representations have made the angst against France’s hurting religious sentiments widely visible across the city, a much stronger signal in this regard was sent in Godhra, albeit very silently.
A section of people boycotted a French product in right earnest without going public with their intentions. The Simla locality in Godhra is dotted by a series of garages and workshops. Since quite some time now, a majority of these garages were using lubricants made by a prominent French company, with many garages even putting up signboards with the firm’s logo in the market.
Simla market operators claim that the pocket is a formidable business force to reckon with.
“There may be 300-odd garages here. Most had started using the same lubricant and even those using the vehicles were happy with it. Now, we have decided to boycott the product and nobody is using it,” said Altaf Jabha, who has a garage in the area.
Jabha said that with discontinuing the product, the signboards too lost their place on the shutters. “If we do not use the product where is the need for the signboards?” he asked.
Those operating from the area pointed out that the decision to boycott the lubricant company was taken about 15-20 days back, much before the recent demonstrations actually began.
“I know of 15 to 20 garages of people known to me itself who have stopped using the lubricant. There are many others who have done the same. We felt hurt with whatever happened in France and hence took the decision,” said Rizwan Bhatuk, another garage owner.
The garage owners point out that so far there have been no attempts to convince the to start using the product again. They said that it may not be of much use given whatever has transpired.