Perils of being Amitabh Bachchan and Madhuri Dixit : They are being hauled up for endorsing Nestle's Maggi 2 minute noodles
Maggi, the 2 minute noodles, manufactured and sold by Nestle in India is in the news these days for all the wrong reasons. It is being alleged that the scrutiny of samples has revealed unduly high level of MSG, a salt / chemical, and potentially dangerous level of harmful material Lead in its packages.
Honestly, it is shocking for me personally since I and my family have been consuming it for decades, and have never ever thought that one day we shall hear something like this about Nestle and Maggi. My children, now grown up, rustle up Maggi every now and then whenever they need a quick bite.
Even today, as I write here, Nestle seems to be sure of the product, and its contents and ingredients, and they aver that there is nothing to worry about. It is noteworthy that while it was decidedly one of the worst days for Indian stock markets, the share price of Nestle witnessed an upswing, after having seen some sound thrashing in the last couple of trading sessions. The anchor on one news channel was saying that Nestle has reportedly got its products tested at home and also at third party labs and have stated that they did not find anything wrong. I shall be happy if it is actually this way but...
On the other hand, authorities across the nation seem to have woken up suddenly and officials from various states are falling over each other collecting samples and sending them for testing. It looks like there is fierce race going on. Some have already declared the product as harmful and dangerous and some have also asked for recall / withdrawal of the products from shops and assorted market outlets.
The moot question is whether Nestle is actually so callous and has been profiteering out of the simple non suspecting people of India. If so, then it needs to be banned and should be asked to pack its bags.
Another and more grave question that arises is as to why and how have the officials across the nation been allowing such thuggery to continue. It may be noted that almost every district has one officer responsible for ensuring food safety, particularly with regard to the contents and quality of packaged food items. Why is it that the officials responsible for ensuing safety of food items never collected samples of Maggi and why nobody is being punished for being careless, rather outright irresponsible.
Now, in India, we are used to and may always trust the spin doctors to twist the matter in such a way that the real issue gets shadowed by proxies. In this case too, some people were quick to throw wool in to the eyes of the people. Is it not surprising that the television channels across the nation are today debating whether there is a case against the brand ambassadors namely Superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Diva Madhuri Dixit, with Priety Zinta, presently away from silver screen and thus not hot news.
While we shall have to wait and watch for the future developments in the case, one can not help but mention that if something like this were to happen in say USA, UK or in Europe, then the company would have gone bankrupt by now, and here we are discussing whether Mr. Bachchan and Ms Dixit are culpable. Nobody is talking of punishing the culprit, the manufacturers of the deficient products, the licensing authorities and the hundreds of district wise food safety officers posted all over India.
To end on a lighter note, while one anchor was shouting at his panel, recommending stringent action against brand ambassadors, citing and reading out lines out of the related law, that a thought passed across my mind, "why not punish the media as well for broadcasting / televising the advertisements of such nefarious products...". After all, we get to see the products' advts only on the tv channels.
Maggi, the 2 minute noodles, manufactured and sold by Nestle in India is in the news these days for all the wrong reasons. It is being alleged that the scrutiny of samples has revealed unduly high level of MSG, a salt / chemical, and potentially dangerous level of harmful material Lead in its packages.
Honestly, it is shocking for me personally since I and my family have been consuming it for decades, and have never ever thought that one day we shall hear something like this about Nestle and Maggi. My children, now grown up, rustle up Maggi every now and then whenever they need a quick bite.
Even today, as I write here, Nestle seems to be sure of the product, and its contents and ingredients, and they aver that there is nothing to worry about. It is noteworthy that while it was decidedly one of the worst days for Indian stock markets, the share price of Nestle witnessed an upswing, after having seen some sound thrashing in the last couple of trading sessions. The anchor on one news channel was saying that Nestle has reportedly got its products tested at home and also at third party labs and have stated that they did not find anything wrong. I shall be happy if it is actually this way but...
On the other hand, authorities across the nation seem to have woken up suddenly and officials from various states are falling over each other collecting samples and sending them for testing. It looks like there is fierce race going on. Some have already declared the product as harmful and dangerous and some have also asked for recall / withdrawal of the products from shops and assorted market outlets.
The moot question is whether Nestle is actually so callous and has been profiteering out of the simple non suspecting people of India. If so, then it needs to be banned and should be asked to pack its bags.
Another and more grave question that arises is as to why and how have the officials across the nation been allowing such thuggery to continue. It may be noted that almost every district has one officer responsible for ensuring food safety, particularly with regard to the contents and quality of packaged food items. Why is it that the officials responsible for ensuing safety of food items never collected samples of Maggi and why nobody is being punished for being careless, rather outright irresponsible.
Now, in India, we are used to and may always trust the spin doctors to twist the matter in such a way that the real issue gets shadowed by proxies. In this case too, some people were quick to throw wool in to the eyes of the people. Is it not surprising that the television channels across the nation are today debating whether there is a case against the brand ambassadors namely Superstar Amitabh Bachchan and Diva Madhuri Dixit, with Priety Zinta, presently away from silver screen and thus not hot news.
While we shall have to wait and watch for the future developments in the case, one can not help but mention that if something like this were to happen in say USA, UK or in Europe, then the company would have gone bankrupt by now, and here we are discussing whether Mr. Bachchan and Ms Dixit are culpable. Nobody is talking of punishing the culprit, the manufacturers of the deficient products, the licensing authorities and the hundreds of district wise food safety officers posted all over India.
To end on a lighter note, while one anchor was shouting at his panel, recommending stringent action against brand ambassadors, citing and reading out lines out of the related law, that a thought passed across my mind, "why not punish the media as well for broadcasting / televising the advertisements of such nefarious products...". After all, we get to see the products' advts only on the tv channels.
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