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Celebrity Hairstylist Jawed Habib Faces Social Media Abuse For 'Hurting The Religious Sentiments' Of Hindus With An Ad

His knew nothing about the ad.
Jawed Habib // Twitter

Reknowned hairstylist Javed Habib seems to have irked the delicate sentiments of many on social media, with an ad in a Kolkata newspaper, promoting his nation-wide chain of salons for the upcoming festive season, reported India Today.

Through September and October, the country's Hindus will be celebrating Navratri, Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali.

The print ad showed several Hindu gods — Durga, Ganesh, Karthik, Lakshmi and Saraswati — enjoying a spa day at a Habib's parlour. The tagline reads, "Gods too visit JH salon."

This, apparently, hurt the religious sentiments of many, who rushed to social media to vent their anger; abuse, boycott and threaten to kill Habib; and make breathtakingly anti-Islamic comments.

Quick to react to the lashback, the company issued a retraction, apologising for inadvertently hurting religious sentiments.

Habib too posted a video on Twitter clarifying that a franchisee owner had taken out the ad without authorisation from the company. Even so, he apologised profusely for causing any hurt.

Fortunately, there were some voices of reason as well.

Jawed Habib is the Chairman of Jawed Habib Hair and Beauty Limited, a $30 million business (as of 2015-2016) and 636 outlets across 110 Indian cities.

According to several reports, Habib suffered a heart attack yesterday in Haryana. He was in the state to inaugurate a salon, when he suffered severe chest pain and collapsed on the floor. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but was declared out of danger by the doctors.

Assuring concerned well-wishers, Habib also posted on Twitter that he was "safe and sound".

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.