Woman tells Airtel she doesn't want to talk to Muslim service executive, Airtel fails to see problem

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Airtel is in middle of a brouhaha on Twitter after it responded kindly to a request that asked the company to not assign a Muslim service executive to a customer's problem. The company, which responds on Twitter through @Airtel_Presence apparently found nothing wrong with a request that first insulted a Muslim service executive and then asked it to assign a "Hindu representative" to look into a problem. Airtel later said that it does not "differentiate between customers or our employees/partners on the basis of caste or religion."

The issue apparently started when Pooja Singh, who claims she is a management professional in her Twitter bio, reported some issue to Airtel on Twitter. It was responded to by Airtel's social media team executive. "Hey, I most definitely appreciate you reaching out here! We will take a closer look into that & get back shortly with more information. Thank you, Shoaib".

It is fairly common practice for Airtel social media executives to sign off their tweets with their name and in this case the person - Shoaib - who responded to Pooja's tweet signed off his response.

Pooja replied to the tweet saying that she wanted Airtel to assign someone else to look into the issue. "Dear Shoaib, as you're a Muslim and I have no faith in your working ethics because Kuran may have different version for customer service, thus requesting you to assign a Hindu representative for my request Thanks".

The tweet was resounded to again by a Airtel service executive. The person didn't go into the specific details of Pooja's earlier tweet, but he asked for details so that he could call and fix her problems. That tweet was signed by Gaganjot.

The Airtel response to a tweet, which many called bigotry and hate speech, was soon viral, with a number of Twitter users saying that Airtel shouldn't have responded to that tweet as if everything was alright. Many Twitter users said that Airtel should have called out Pooja on her inappropriate tweet.

"Wherein one of India's largest mobile providers @Airtel_Presence caters to bigotry. The times we live in," tweeted Rupa Subramanya.

With many Twitter users outraging about its original tweet, Airtel later made another tweet, saying that the company doesn't differentiate on the basis of caste and religion. In a longer tweet, the company replied to Pooja and said: "Dear Pooja, at Airtel, we absolutely do not differentiate between customers, employees and partners on the basis of caste or religion. We would urge you to do the same. Both Shoaib and Gaganjot are part of our customer resolution team. If any customer contacts us for an ongoing service issue then the first available service executive responds in the interest of time. On your query, we will get back to you as soon as there is an update. Thanks - Himanshu, Airtel Response Team Lead."

Separately, Airtel also issued a statement saying the issue should not be given unnecessary religious colour. "At Airtel, we do not differentiate between customers or our employees/partners on the basis of caste or religion. If a customer contacts us again for an ongoing service issue then the first available service executive responds in the interest of time. We request everyone not to misinterpret and give it unnecessary religious colour. The said customer has been responded to," said an Airtel spokesperson.

Incidentally, this is not the first time a brand has to deal with bigotry on Indian Twitter space. On Several occasions Uber had to respond to people who tweeted out against their Muslim drivers, whereas Twitter had to respond when a media professional advocated genocide against Muslims. Although, in the case of the media professional, Twitter later decided that there was nothing wrong with the tweet.

In comparison to the way Airtel handled the issue, global brands - when they are in mature markets like Europe and the US - deal with such issues in a more stringent manner. Several months ago when an ultra-right commentator in the US tweeted out against Muslim Uber driver, not only Uber banned that person from using the service but also Lyft, which is Uber's primary competitor, said that the person would not be allowed to use its cabs.

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