Walmart Under Fire for Selling Ganesha-Printed Slippers & Undergarments

Another US retailer Walmart faced severe backlash from the Hindu community after it began selling undergarments, swimsuits, slippers and other products featuring Lord Ganesha printed on them.

In 2019, US giant was caught in a controversy for selling toilet seat covers, yoga mats, sneakers, rugs and other items depicting Hindu gods.

After facing criticism, Amazon removed those items made them unavailable on the website.

Similarly, following severe rage over social media, Walmart also removed the Ganesh slippers from the online catalogue.

The pictures of slippers with Ganesh image and other products with the Lord’s photos became viral on social media and netizens accused Walmart of being insensitive to cultural and religious sentiments.

When Amazon printed Hindu gods’ images on trivial household goods, several users took to X (formerly Twitter) with #BoycottAmazon and called Amazon a repeated offender.

In 2018 too, several products like doormats, rugs and toilet seat covers with images of Golden Temple were sold at Amazon. The Canadian unit of the global e-commerce behemoth Amazon sold doormats carrying the pictures of national flag of India. The then External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had demanded an apology from Amazon at that time.

At one time, Lord Ram’s pictures were also emblazoned on footwear.

An Indian-American Ohio girl Ankita Mishra also slammed a pub in the US for decorating its walls in toilet with Hindu Gods.

In a blog post, Ankita wrote, “… last month, during a night out with friends, I could not stay quiet when I suddenly found myself in a curiously-decorated VIP bathroom inside House of Yes in Bushwick, NY. The wall were papered with bejeweled images of Hindu gods like Ganesha, Saraswati, Kali and Shiva.”

This reveals that disrespecting Hindu gods has been going on in the US, even when the Hindu community never dared to desecrate Lord Jesus. It is time US companies understand the religious sentiments and devotion the Hindus have towards their gods and stop degrading their value by displaying their pictures on products treated with irreverence.