Controversial Krishna cartoon wasn’t designed by Myntra but third party 5 years ago

Kalpana Srivastava, national president of the Shankaracharya Gurukul Trust, tweeted a controversial cartoon and claimed it was designed by e-commerce website Myntra. It depicts the disrobing of Draupadi, a character from the Indian epic ‘Mahabharata’. In the picture, Krishna is shown searching for a long saree on the Myntra website. It is claimed that the e-commerce website mocked Hinduism by displaying such an image on its site. Users are sharing the image calling for a boycott of the platform. (Archive link)

..@myntra क्या आपमें अन्य धर्मों के पूज्य देवताओं की छवियों का गलत उपयोग करके एक समान अभियान करने की हिम्मत है? यदि नहीं तो माफी मांगें और इसे अपने सभी प्लेटफॉर्म से हटा दें अन्यथा हम #BoycottMyntra और जिस कर्मचारी ने यह बनाया है उसके ख़िलाफ़ FIR के लिए तैयार हो जाएं। pic.twitter.com/xuDtJyK80B

— कल्पना श्रीवास्तव 🇮🇳 (@Lawyer_Kalpana) August 23, 2021

One such tweet by @Chopdasaab was liked by over 4,000 handles. The user has written that he has uninstalled the Myntra app from his phone and mentions that he will not be buying from the platform in the future. (Archive link)

Several other handles have also demanded a boycott of Myntra while circulating the image, including prominent accounts like @Nimki_911, @VaaNi0094, and @HinduTreasure. It is being widely circulated with the hashtag #BoycottMyntra. One Shejal Joshi, who describes herself as a BJP worker, also shared the viral image along with another screenshot that showed her deleting the Myntra app from her phone. (Archive link)

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Fact-check

A keyword search on Google about this clears the air. According to a Times of India story from August 26, 2016, this image was originally posted online in 2015. However, it had nothing to do with Myntra and was actually made by an advertising website named ScrollDroll. Following the controversy and flak that the graphic was generating, ScrollDroll apologized and quickly took it down.

In a tweet from August 2016, ScrollDroll clarified that the artwork had nothing to do with Myntra. The tweet read, “We take responsibility for this artwork. Myntra has nothing to do with this directly or indirectly.” Myntra also quote-tweeted the post, adding that neither did it create this graphic and nor would it endorse such art.

We did not create this artwork nor do we endorse this. https://t.co/EWyWUEsky5

— Myntra (@myntra) August 26, 2016

Myntra had explained in a Twitter thread that the graphic was created by a third party without the knowledge and approval of the company. There was also talk of the e-commerce platform taking legal action in the matter.

Following this, ScrollDroll issued an apology via Twitter for hurting religious sentiments.

We apologize and deeply regret if any of our artwork has hurt the sentiments of anyone.

— ScrollDroll (@ScrollDroll) August 25, 2016

To sum it up, a caricature already taken down after generating widespread controversy in 2016 is being circulated again with a call to boycott Myntra.