MIC: Withdraw ‘Do the Dappan’ ad

MIC secretary-general S Murugesan says the dance routine in the video does not reflect the Indian culture.

PETALING JAYA: The MIC has called upon Petronas to remove its Deepavali advertisement for this year, which is posted on YouTube, saying it did not reflect the Indian culture.

MIC secretary-general S Murugesan said that the advertisement may send the wrong message to Indians youths in the country, especially the Hindus.

“I have watched the video. I think Petronas should with withdraw the advertisement and replace it with something else,” he said.

The advertisement, which runs for over three minutes, shows youth named Raj doing the Dappan Kuthu dance and getting unlikely people to join his dance routine.

Petronas defines the Dappan Kuthu dance as an energetic dance routine which is prominent in Tamil cinema.

However, the video drew ire from Internet users, who claimed that the advertisement is far from reflecting the spirit of Deepavali.

The video, which drew nearly 100,000 visitors as of today, had 1,442 “dislikes” as opposed to 325 “likes”.

The advertisement is scheduled to be aired nationwide this weekend.

When asked if MIC would approach Petronas on the matter, Murugesan said that he would use internal channels to resolve the issue.

He also said that Petronas had a sound track record in coming up with meaningful Deepavali advertisements and thus, people had higher expectation this year.

“I don’t think Petronas will go ahead with the advertisement as the public have spoken,” said Murugesan.

On related matter, Angkatan Warga Aman Malaysia (WargaAman) had threatened to launch a nationwide protest if Petronas refused to remove the advertisement.

The NGOs secretary-general, S Bharathidasan said that the video was an insult to Malaysian Hindus as it did not have any message related to Deepavali.

“Dancing on the street is not Malaysian Indian culture. The dance routine is an imitation from Tamil movies. Stereotyping Indians like this is bad and should be stopped,” he said.