Durga pushes whisky in disco

Hindus in the UK are gearing up to protest the use of an image of Durga carrying bottles of Southern Comfort Whisky to attract customers to a disco bar in Athens.

As worldwide protests against the cartoons on the Prophet Mohammed show no signs of subsiding, Hindus in the UK are gearing up to protest the use of an image of Durga carrying bottles of Southern Comfort Whisky to attract customers to a disco bar in Athens.

HT Image

The posters, put up inside and outside the Balon Oriental Disco Bar, are an attempt to show that even gods can't stay away from liquor.

"The Indian community in Athens have been trying for the last three months to have the posters removed but they have totally ignored us," said Paramjit Singh, originally from Jalandhar, now settled in Greece.

Now, the National Council of Hindu Temples (UK) has decided to use its resources to get the posters removed. "Letters have been sent to the manufacturers of Southern Comfort whisky in the US to withdraw the offending posters," Bimal Krishna Das, the organisation's general secretary, told HT. "This poster is not only deeply offensive, it is blasphemous," said Das. "It has hurt the religious feelings of both Hindus and Sikhs." "To portray the Deity in any context other than the most reverential is totally unacceptable. I expect we will see organised, but peaceful protests, including a march in London" he added. The protests will definitely be massive because the National Council of Hindu Temples (UK) is a well-connected body, which links various temples in the UK.

In the past, images of Shiva, Ganesha, Krishna have been used on shoes, commode seats, sandals and bikinis in the West.