Indian telecom company Airtel is under fire after it failed to defend a Muslim employee against open discrimination from one of its customers on Twitter.
A customer, Pooja, tweeted out a complaint to the company which was responded to by an Airtel employee, Shoaib.
"Dear Shohaib, as you're a Muslim and I have no faith in your work ethics because Quran may have a different version of customer service, thus requesting you to assign a Hindu representative for my request," Pooja replied.
At this, the company - instead of running to defend Shoaib - handed the case to another employee, Gaganjot.
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TWITTERAirtel's initial response of assigning a representative with a Hindu name caused outrage on social media as users started bashing the business for supporting racism. The company issued another statement stating it did not 'differentiate' based on religion.
Dear Pooja, at Airtel, we absolutely do not differentiate between customers, employees and partners on the basis of caste or religion. We would urge you to do the same. Both Shoaib and Gaganjot are part of our customer resolution team. (cont) https://t.co/lbwhRE95vm
— Airtel Cares (@Airtel_Presence) June 18, 2018
The exchange in no time went viral and drew strong criticism online. The former chief minister of occupied Kashmir denounced the company, saying he would stop using Airtel. However, Twitterati continued to denounce Airtel for complying with Pooja's discriminatory request.
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The reason why the criticism is being directed more at Airtel and less at Pooja is because our service providers are expected not to discriminate, pander to bigotry, and play to the market climate. Is that so difficult to understand?
— Rituparna Chatterjee (@MasalaBai) June 18, 2018
Why did you change the customer service agent addressing her concern? What message are you giving shoiab and every other muslim in this country??
— Andolanjeevi সাইলীনা/Saileena/سیلینا/ਸੈਲੀਨਾ (@saileenas) June 18, 2018
What the hell @Airtel_Presence! By responding through Gaganjot instead of Shoaib, you accommodated prejudice. What message are you sending to your employees and to the rest of us? Shame on you! https://t.co/qcNle3ziWI
— Salman Anees Soz (@SalmanSoz) June 18, 2018
Hello @Airtel_Presence, an employee of yours was discriminated on the basis of religion by a customer of yours. Instead of standing up for your employee, you promptly complied with such a bigoted request? @airtelindia pic.twitter.com/OtJPX5iosB
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) June 18, 2018
https://twitter.com/akashbanerjee/status/1008731107318292480
Dear @Airtel_Presence this conversation is genuine (I’ve seen the timeline myself). 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 & canceling my DTH & Broadband. pic.twitter.com/BZxJOaEsN6
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) June 18, 2018
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