(Portland, OR) – The controversy around a beer name and its label artwork took a strange turn on Tuesday.
Last week, Burnside Brewing sent around a press release promoting its Kali-Ma beer, urging beer drinkers to, “Come worship ‘the black one’ Kali as the ultimate reality or Brahman.” The beer was supposed to be released today.
Soon after, a Hindu statesman condemned Burnside, urging it not to release the beer. Burnside issued a swift apology and agreed not to release the beer with that branding. The same Hindu statesman then sent out another press release bringing closure to the debacle.
Well, not so fast. Fast forward to today’s session in the upper house of the Parliament of India, the “Rajya Sabha.” The Bharatiya Janata Party, the largest conservative party in India, wants more action taken…
"Summon US Ambassador to India… and make him apologise for this," he said condemning the act and demanded a statement from External Affairs Minister. As BJP and other members supported the issue, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla intervened saying, "I will convey the concerns to External Affairs Ministry.”
It remains to be seen whether this will have any impact on U.S.-India relations or whether U.S. officials will get involved…
But if anyone from Burnside was considering making a trip to India someday, go ahead and cross that off of the list.
Wow! …. and ouch!!
You have to be smarter as a company than to release a beer depicting a religious figure and severed heads. Nobody in the room said, “I don’t think it’s such a good idea”? That being said, The Bharatiya Janata Party is making this much more of a deal than it has to be.
Not to get political, but it’s amazing how other countries expect us to bend to their will, religion, etc. first off, it is a private company that has nothing to do with the government. Secondly, I don’t know how things are done in India, but we have the protected right to speech, religion and enterprise. So it upsets India, burning an American flag fires me up but that’s ok to do?!? And the worst part is we are bending to everyone’s will! What would happen if they burned a bible…nothing! George Washington, a founding father, first president and BEER LOVER stated, “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
Was this name probably tasteless, perhaps, should our or any other government have a say in the matter? NEVER!
Pretty sure a Third World country the size of India has more pressing political, social, and economic concerns. “Hey US Ambassador, so we’re pretty concerned about your presence in Pakistan and them wanting to wipe us off the face of the Earth, but you should really apologize about this beer.”
@thederz: The BJP in India is basically a Hindu theocratic party. They’re going to take this quite seriously, as it’s basically the underpinning of their political support.
Burnside should rescind their apology and go ahead with the original plan. Then, India’s parliament should apologise for Kingfisher.
Yay. Let’s waste more time on religion and humans protecting “gods” from other humans.
I agree with Finn. This is not an issue the federal government has any business with. Some member of India’s legislature may not understand our right to free speech, so maybe the ambassador should enlighten them on the subject. Other than that, leave it alone. It will sell or it won’t. Let the market figure it out.
Maybe they should have made it an India Pale Ale! Agree @ Finn, We as a country should be exporting our constitutional freedoms around the world. Instead it appears we are importing and imposing the restrictions of other countries and religions upon the constitution