Aides say Habib targeted because he is not a Hindu

Sources close to celebrity hairdresser Jawed Habib said that all the uproar regarding a newspaper advert showing goddess Durga in a salon was because of the name of Jawed Habib being associated with it.

“There had been so many similar advertisements and campaigns in the past. No one was bothered. Even a recent article in a media said that since he is ‘Jawed’, how could he insult a Hindu god?” said a source close to Habib.

Talking to DNA, a spokesperson for Habib said that as soon as the advertisement was out and people expressed objection on social media, Habib had tendered an apology.

“The advertisement was published in Kolkata in a newspaper by a franchisee, not by Habib. There are 650 outlets of Jawed Habib and one such did it and advertisements like these are very common in Bengal. The franchise concerned never took any approval from Habib. He did it locally,” the spokesperson said.

The advertisement showed goddess Durga and the other gods and goddesses – Lakshmi, Saraswati, Karthik and Ganesha – were in a Jawed Habib Salon getting beauty treatments ahead of the Pujas which is the biggest festival in Bengal.

In Hyderabad, lawyer A Karuna Sagar had filed a case against …read more