RENO, Nev. — A Hindu activist has urged the Bond Street Chocolate company of New York to withdraw its “Ganesh Chocolate,” a figurine of Lord Ganesh made with chocolate, calling it highly inappropriate.
Rajan Zed, Indian American president of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a Jan. 31 statement said that Lord Ganesh was highly revered in Hinduism and was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to be eaten casually.
Zed urged Bond Street Chocolate to show some responsibility, respect and maturity by “understanding the hurt feelings of Hindu community” and stop manufacturing Ganesh-shaped edible chocolates.
Incidentally, other chocolate figurines made by the company include three types of a “Chocolate Buddha,” “Dark Chocolate Jesus,” “Virgin of Guadalupe,” and “Dark Chocolate Moses.”
Zed indicated that inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts or symbols for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt devotees. It was highly insensitive to create an edible Hindu deity, he said.
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