Lord Vishnu spells misfortune for Fortune magazine

The international publication apologised for hurting Hindu sentiments by featuring Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as Lord Vishnu in its January cover.

Fortune, the international business publication, has landed in trouble after its January cover featuring Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as Lord Vishnu received flak over social media. The illustration features Bezos in the likeness of Lord Vishnu's image.

The cover has received criticism from readers globally for trivialising the Hindu God and hurting religious sentiments. Many readers have tweeted to Alan Murray, editor, Fortune, expressing their displeasure. Murray tweeted back apologising and stating that the cover was meant to reinforce Amazon's focus on the Indian market since the cover story of the January edition is titled 'Amazon invades India'.

Fortune released an official statement on the development, which said, "The cover of Fortune's January 2016 international edition featured an illustration of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as a Hindu deity. Neither the artist, nor the editors of Fortune had any intention of parodying a particular deity or of offending members of the Hindu faith. It is clear that we erred and for that, we apologise."

Ok, cool @FortuneMagazine now do one with Bezos as Jesus in honor of Black Friday? pic.twitter.com/deJ6fmhFCC

— Anil Dash (@anildash) January 9, 2016

Fair point, Anil. Apologies to those offended. @anildash

— Alan Murray (@alansmurray) January 10, 2016

Recall that in a somewhat similar incident earlier, cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni landed in trouble by appearing as Lord Vishnu on the cover of the Indian business publication Business Today. A local court in Andhra Pradesh issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against the cricketer accusing him of hurting religious sentiments.