Why Malabar Gold & Diamonds Faces Boycott Calls on Dhanteras — The Alleged Pakistan Link Explained

Malaibar Gold and diamonds, a jewellery giant based in Kerala, is being boycotted and severely criticised during the Dhanteras festivals, the day that marks the beginning of the Hindu festival of Diwali and is a good day to buy gold and silver, as it is considered to be auspicious. It has a Pakistani connection to the row.

The scandal broke out in September about the partnership of the company with London-based Pakistani Instagram influencer Alishba Khalid who had earlier ridiculed the operation Sindoor of India as a cowardly activity.

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A number of social media users criticized the company because of collaborating with Khalid as a promoter when they opened their showroom in London. The posts purported that the jewellery brand was a sympathiser of Pakistan.

PTI news agency reports that Malabar Gold and Diamonds had petitioned the high court against posts and contents posted on social platforms like facebook and instagram, and Google by random users who had associated the company with the country of Pakistan. In the plea, it was alleged that the posts were hurting the sales of the company especially in the festive season. The company also provided a list of 442 URLs that had supposedly defamatory content and applied an injunction to stop any further posts.

The Bombay high court stepped in last month and ordered posts trolling the brand on social media to be deleted, because the influencer had been hired in the UK and she was Pakistani-origin.

In its order, a bench of Justice Sandeep Marne stated that it had made a case under which an ad-interim injunction was to be granted and ordered the posts referring to the jewellery brand as a sympathiser of Pakistan to be removed. The court also told social media not to permit the posting of any other defamatory materials against the company pertaining to the appointment of Khalid.

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In the meantime, Hindu activist Vijay Patel reported that his X account was allegedly blocked in India after the order of the court. “My account is withheld in India by order of the Indian court for supporting the Indian Army! Happy Dhanteras,” he posted on X, as reported by the Organiser.

Malabar Gold’s clarification

Malabar Gold & Diamonds was planning to open a showroom in Birmingham, UK, according to a petition referenced by Reuters. The company had contacted JAB Studios to engage influencers for promotional purposes, one of whom was Alishba Khalid, a Pakistani national residing in the UK. Khalid had publicly criticized India’s Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack earlier this year.

In its plea, Malabar clarified that Khalid had been retained to promote the showroom prior to the Pahalgam attack in April and that at no point did the company know her Pakistani nationality.

Malabar also stated Khalid’s services had been terminated and asserted that "simply utilizing the services of a UK-based social media influencer at some point cannot be a basis to disseminate defamatory material."

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