Israeli liquor company apologises for putting Mahatma Gandhi’s picture on beer bottle

An Israeli liquor company has apologized to the Indian government for putting Mahatma Gandhi's picture on beer bottles, news agency PTI reports said.

A statement has been issued by the company’s Brand Manager Gilad Dror on Wednesday. He regretted using Mahatma Gandhi's images on liquor bottle and also for hurting sentiments.

"Malka Beer offers its heartfelt apologies to the people and the Government of India for hurting their sentiments. We highly respect and value Mahatma Gandhi and regret our action of putting his image on our bottles," Gilad Dror said in the statement.

He also told in a release that the company has stopped the production and supplies of the bottles that contain Mahatma Gandhi's images on the bottles soon after the issue raised by the Indian Embassy in Israel.

Dror further added that the company is making efforts to withdraw the product from the market too.

“The reason behind using Gandhi’s pictures on the bottle is to ‘honor’ him," said Gilad Dror.

On 71st Independence Day (May 8-9), Bapu’s images were used on the beer bottles for celebrations.

Besides Mahatma Gandhi’s images, the other pictures that featured on the liquor bottles were of the former three prime ministers of Israel- David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Menachem Begin father of Zionism.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Members of Rajya Sabha had objected against the use of Bapu's image on the liquor bottles by Israel company.

After the issue raised in the upper house of Parliament, Vice-President of India M Venkaiah Naidu directed the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to raise the issue and take immediate action against it.

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