Offended at the use of Zoroastrian icons and the Indian national flag and emblem on products like bath mats, coasters, socks, leggings and shower curtains, vice president for the right-wing Hindu organization Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Calcutta High Court lawyer Phiroze Edulji has sent two legal notices to Redbubble.com. The company is a global online marketplace with offices in Melbourne and San Francisco for print-on-demand products. Copies of the notices were shared with Parsiana.
The lawyer’s notices of July 20 and 27, 2021 to Redbubble to "cease and desist” from using the symbol Farohar and that of Prophet Zoroaster as also the Indian national flag and emblem seems to have been partially successful. When Parsiana checked Redbubble’s website on August 4, products such as bath mats which had reportedly carried the image of the Farohar were unavailable. However, iPhone covers and water bottles with images of Zarathushtra, which were also objected to by Edulji continued to be advertised.
Edulji told Parsiana that he has sent similar notices to other online sites on their depiction of the national flag as it is "an offence under Indian laws (Prevention of Improper Use Act, 1950).” The lawyer told the news portal News 18.com: "If I don’t get any response then I will raise the matter before the Department of Telecommunications at Delhi because they are the appropriate authority to look into such cases.”
News18.com reported that Edulji told them that "There is no difference between a Hindu and a Zoroastrian … If you go through our Zend Avesta, you will find the word ‘Hindu.’ This drew my attention towards (right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organization) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) 12 years back and in October 2020 I was assigned to work for VHP.”
Edulji was earlier successful in a public interest litigation filed in the Calcutta High Court on behalf of Darayas Bapooji, president of the Parsi Zoroastrian Association (PZA) of Calcutta, to remove from YouTube a music video starring Iranian singer Amitis Moghaddam and Calvin Cordozar Boradus Jr, popularly known as Snoop Dogg, "which community members felt was blasphemous and showed disrespect for the sacred farohar symbol displayed as a backdrop” (see "Fracas over farohar,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, August 7, 2015).
Edulji has appeared on behalf of PZA in the matter of the originating summons filed by Calcutta resident Prochy Mehta in the city’s High Court, to determine who has the right of entry to the Mehta fire temple there.
F. J.