【Seventeen (2019)】

Chinese smartphone maker Oppo has come under fire in India after a company official allegedly tore and Seventeen (2019)threw the national flag on the factory premises.

Workers at the Chinese company’s Noida office protested for hours on Tuesday, accusing a China-born executive of insulting the Indian flag.

Some workers reportedly went to a hotel where the Chinese executive was staying. The hotel authorities, however, removed them from the premise.

Police have registered a case against the official, who is said to assume production manager role, for allegedly showing disrespect to the national flag.

Police officer Gaurav Grover said they are in the process of retrieving the CCTV footage and will accordingly charge the offender with Flag Acts.

Oppo has apologised for the incident, and said it will take actions against the staff who insulted the national flag. "We are cooperating with the authorities concerned and will be taking appropriate actions," the company said in an official statement.

The company assured that it has "deep respect" for India, and is a "responsible employer."

As we have seen in the past, Indians care a lot about the national flag, and the domestic government is quick to take action if such incidents are brought to its attention. Last year, Amazon was thrown under the bus after its Canadian store was found to be selling doormats depicting India's national flag. Minutes after somebody let India's external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj know of the incident, the 62-year old outspoken minister lambasted the company, threatening to expel all foreign employees of Amazon from the country.

Amazon was quick to issue an apology and fix the problem.

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