Hyundai receives boycott calls from India after Pakistan partner expresses solidarity with people in Kashmir

South Korea’s Hyundai Motor is facing calls for boycott in India after a tweet from its Pakistani partner drew backlash on social media.

The uproar started on social media on Sunday after a tweet from a handle affiliated to Hyundai Motor, @HyundaiPakistanOfficial expressed support on Kashmir Solidarity Day.

Kashmir is a territory that is disputed between India and Pakistan with both nations claiming the Himalayan region. India, however, sees Kashmir as integral to its territorial sovereignty.

“Let us remember the sacrifices of our Kashmiri brothers and stand in support as they continue to struggle for freedom,” the tweet had said.

The post, also shared on Facebook, was subsequently deleted.

However social media users picked up on the tweet and soon #BoycottHyundai and #Hyundaimustapologise became top trends on Twitter in India on Monday.

Users called out the second-largest carmaker in the country and threatened to boycott its products.

On Tuesday, Hyundai India distanced itself and issued a statement saying that it “deeply regretted any offence caused to the people of India by this unofficial social media activity”.

The statement said that Hyundai Motor had ensured that the social media post is deleted as the 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 unauthorised Kashmir-related social media posts from their own accounts.”

The statement added that Hyundai Motor India is not associated with the distributor in Pakistan and that the company “strongly reject the distributor’s unauthorised non-business related social media activity”.

In 2020, similar boycott calls were made on social media against Chinese goods after a border dispute between the two countries.

The social media backlash took a political turn later on Tuesday after India’s federal ministry of external affairs said the South Korean ambassador had been summoned over the issue.

In a statement, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the ministry of external affairs 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, 6th February 2022, our Ambassador in Seoul contacted the Hyundai Headquarters and sought an explanation.”

“The offending post had been removed subsequently. The Ambassador of the Republic of Korea was summoned by the Ministry of External Affairs yesterday 7th February 2022,” the statement said.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar said that he had received a call from the South Korean Foreign minister, Chung Eui-yong to discuss the “Hyundai matter”.

“Received a call from ROK FM Chung Eui-yong today. Discussed bilateral and multilateral issues as also the Hyundai matter,” he said in a tweet.

Hyundai Motor Company, established in 1967, operates in over 200 countries with more than 1.2 lakh employees.

In December, the automaker announced plans to invest around Rs 4,000 crore (£394m) to drive in around six electric vehicles in India by 2028, reported news agency Press Trust of India.

Other global chains like KFC and Pizza Hut also faced backlash on Twitter India after posts expressing solidarity with Kashmir’s self-determination.

Both issued apologies stating that the companies do not condone the posts circulating on social media.