Firstly, a disclaimer. This is not in defence of Kalyan Jewellers, a Kerala business family with over 100 years in the trade; nor in support of Amitabh Bachchan, its brand ambassador. Both find themselves declared persona non grata by the All India Bank Officers’ Confederation – an apex trade union of supervisory cadre employees in the banking sector – for an advertisement made by the brand using the actor and a bank.

The ad shows Bachchan as a senior citizen, old and rattling, being taken to his bank by daughter Shweta Bachchan Nanda to return that month’s pension which has been inadvertently credited twice in his account. Not an uncommon happening in this county. The ad shows the Bachchans being given a rude runaround by bank employees who could be described as impatient. From pillar to post till they land in the branch manager’s cabin.

He expresses amazement. Even makes a joke of the circumstance. And seeks to dismiss the father-daughter duo by telling them that to reverse the extra pension would be tedious. Instead, they should keep the money and celebrate the windfall. “Who will even know?” the manager tells the incredulous Bachchans reassuringly. “I know,” the actor says, “and even if nobody else does, wrong is wrong.”

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What’s perhaps incongruous is Kalyan Jewellers’ message that “where principles are in practice, there is trust – and trust is everything” in an ad featuring Amitabh Bachchan and using a bank as an example. At best, it’s a social communication you don’t see coming that nowhere plugs the brand’s jewelry or the actor as its ambassador. Bachchan himself indifferently tweeted, “Emotional moment for me… tears welling up every time I see it… daughters are the best!”

https://twitter.com/SrBachchan/status/1019210031915560960

But the AIBOC, which has 3,20,000 members, is not having this. It sees in the ad an attempt to denigrate and cast aspersions on the banking system by the jewelry brand for commercial gains. It finds the ad “disgusting and derogatory… aimed at creating distrust in the banking system among billions of citizens… and hurtful to the sentiments of millions of banking personnel and stakeholders”.

Perhaps it is. But why is the AIBOC getting onto its high horse about the bank’s apathy shown towards a customer’s grievance in the ad? It’s known to happen. As for the ad creating distrust in the banking system, why did the Reserve Bank of India tell India Today in reply to an RTI query that “…over 23,000 cases of fraud involving a whopping Rs. 1 lakh crore were reported in the past five years in various banks”? Of which, “5,152 cases were reported between April 2017 and March 2018 involving the highest ever amount of Rs. 28, 459 crore”? And why did the RBI admit to Times of India that “…what emerged in the aftermath of the massive Punjab National Bank scam this year was the active role of employees of Public Sector Banks in multiple frauds over the years”? Let those who have not sinned cast the first stone, huh?