 By Ashok Sharma/AP
A class-action lawsuit against fast-food giant McDonald’s has been filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle on behalf of two South Asian Americans. The charge: fraudulent fries.
Indian American attorney Harish Bharti accused McDonald’s of using beef fat in the preparation of french fries more than a decade after it said it would cook its fries in vegetable oil.
The suit began as an attempt to address concerns of American Hindus, who are largely vegetarian for religious reasons, but has grown into something much larger. A vegetarian is also named in the suit, and Bharti added that other vegetarians who ate McDonald’s fries, believing they contained no meat, could join the suit.
The controversy has since spread to India.
On Saturday, after a front-page story about the lawsuit ran in a New Delhi newspaper, a Hindu nationalist group shouted slogans outside the corporate office of McDonald’s in the Indian capital, demanding the closure of all its outlets. More than 50 protesters belonging to the Shiv Sena, an alliance partner of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government, refused to accept McDonald’s clarification that french fries and other vegetarian products sold in India “do not contain any beef or animal extracts, of whatsoever kind.”
In a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Vajpayee, Jaibhagwan Goyal, a local Shiv Sena leader, demanded that the government should order immediate closure of all McDonald’s restaurants in the country. McDonald’s India, which opened its first restaurant there in October 1996, now has 28 outlets in New Delhi, Bombay, Pune, Jaipur and on the Delhi-Agra highway.
Goyal was skeptical of the McDonald’s assurance, saying the company had made similar promises in the United States 10 years ago, but continued to use beef flavoring in french fries.
The protest was peaceful compared to the ones held on May 4 when demonstrators from the Bajrang Dal, an affiliate of Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party, charged into a Bombay suburb outlet and smashed furniture and ceiling lights. No injuries were reported.
They later smeared cow dung on a McDonald’s mascot at another outlet in Bombay, India’s financial capital.
On Saturday, Vikram Bakshi, managing director of McDonald’s in New Delhi, told reporters that the company has developed a menu especially for India that keeps in mind Indian cultural and religious sentiments.
“McDonald’s India does not use beef or pork. We also do not use any animal flavoring or extract for any of our vegetable products, including french fries.” He expressed hope the controversy would die down soon in India.
Most of India’s Hindus — 85 percent of the population — are vegetarians, although with urbanization and migration more Indians are becoming meat-eaters.
Attorney Bharti said he suspects McDonald’s is misleading Hindus in India. McDonald’s strict standardization practices give the fries the same taste in New Delhi as they have in Seattle. |
