Karnataka flag-themed bikini lands up on Amazon Canada; incensed minister threatens action

Less than two days after another such controversy involving a tech giant, people of Karnataka are up in arms again, taking enormous offence to a product listed on Amazon Canada. The product that allegedly 'insulted' the people of the state is a bikini made out of colours of the Karnataka flag and icon. The product was allegedly listed for sale on the website of Amazon Canada. 

As the uproar over the bikini carrying the icon of the Kannada flag reached the Karnataka government, Minister for Kannada, Culture and Forest, Aravind Limbavali issued a stern response. The Karnataka Minister has said that legal action will be taken against Amazon Canada and has demanded an apology for all Kannadigas. 

"We experienced an insult of Kannada by @Google recently. Even before the scars could heal, we find @amazonca using the colours of #Kannada flag and the kannada icon on ladies’ clothes," Limbavali said in a tweet. 

Google issues apology after facing flak

Earlier, Google had courted controversy on Thursday morning with angry netizens aiming sharp criticism at the search engine giant for showing Kannada as the 'world's ugliest language'. What followed was a massive outrage against the US-based tech company on social media forcing it to issue an apology for hurting the sentiments of the Indian people. Reasoning that the search results are not always perfect, a Google spokesperson on Thursday admitted that the search result was not ideal and that it does not 'reflect the opinions' of Google. 

In a statement to news agency PTI, Google said, "We know this is not ideal, but we take swift corrective action when we are made aware of an issue and are continually working to improve our algorithms. Naturally, these are not reflective of the opinions of Google, and we apologise for the misunderstanding and hurting any sentiments."

Even then Aravind Limbavali had threatened to take legal action against Google for allegedly 'insulting' the pride of Kannadigas. Demanding a public apology from Google, the Karnataka Minister had said that legal action will be taken against the multinational company for 'maligning the image' of Kannada.  The content of the response shown on the Google search belonged to a certain blog which was taken down after it was reported by multiple users who also sought Google's apology.