Why Virat Kohli, Priyanka Chopra should not quit as brand ambassadors -Governance Now

Why Virat Kohli, Priyanka Chopra should not quit as brand ambassadors

In the alleged PNB-Nirav Modi scam, they have not led anybody into trouble

GN Bureau | February 22, 2018

#Priyanka Chopra #Mahendra Singh Dhoni #Virat Kohli #Banking #Punjab National Bank #Nirav Modi #Amrapali

Virat Kohli (Photo Courtesy: Twitter)

After becoming the brand ambassador for Punjab National Bank in 2016, cricket star Virat Kohli has appeared in advertisements promoting a variety of loans. Now that PNB is in deep soup over an alleged Rs 11,400 crore scandal, Kohli is expected to end his contract with the bank. That may not be fair.

The same argument holds for film stars Priyanka Chopra and Siddharth Malhotra, who have appeared in the advertisements for jeweler-businessman Nirav Modi who is alleged to have perpetrated the fraud.

In April 2016, Kohli’s senior, MS Dhoni, had to step down as brand ambassador for Amrapali builders, after the residents of the real-estate firm’s Noida project took to the social media to air their complaints.

Apparently, prime minister Narendra Modi proposes to bring in a new law to fix liability of brand ambassadors in such cases, as celebrity faces do influence consumers’ choices. The proposed law will of course have to take care of the nuances of liabilities.

However, before asking Kohli, Chopra or Dhoni to end their ties with some firm that is facing allegations of wrongdoing, Twitterati should pause and consider what, if anything, is it that they have done wrong.

When Kohli, for example, became the brand ambassador of PNB, a press statement from the bank quoted him as saying that “PNB is Mera Apna Bank” as, the statement adds, “he is an account holder of the Bank since the age of 16 years.” In that case, in fact, he himself might be in the same plight as other PNB accountholders! Come to think of it, naming PNB as “my preferred banker” and nudging a loan aspirant to a nearby PNB bank involve no liability – no fraud has been perpetrated on the bank’s accountholders and loan-takers.

In other words, the financial scandal – involving misuse of some LoUs that have gone unpaid for long – has nothing whatever to do with the area Kohli and Chopra are dealing in. Unlike Dhoni, who might have influenced a home-buyer’s decision to buy an Amrapali property and thus (it can be argued) directly led to their later troubles; Kohli and Chopra have not put anybody in trouble by their endorsements.

The basic philosophy of consumer protection sometimes seems to be that ‘the consumer is gullible and needs to be protected from any and every potentially misleading claims’. Well, the consumer is no more gullible than the poor: she is the same person who buys Geetanjali jewelry and goes to vote too.

Comments

Other News

GI tags: Scaling traditional wealth into global brands

Geographical Indication (GI) tags have emerged as a powerful tool for protecting India`s cultural heritage, while creating economic opportunities for local communities. By linking products to their place of origin, GI tags preserve traditional knowledge, prevent misuse, and enhance consumer trust. They h

BMC: 207 officials in ACB net, 112 still on duty, 68 retire before justice catches up

There are significant delays in the handling of corruption cases involving officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), a Right to Information (RTI) response obtained by rights activist Jeetendra Ghadge has revealed. As of 30 April 2026, 207 BMC officials face Anti-Corruption Bureau (A

The transformation trap: Why efficiency is not innovation

Every company is transforming, or so it claims. There was a time when the word ‘transformation’ carried weight. It signified bold strategic shifts, reinvention of business models, and breakthrough technologies that fundamentally changed how organizations created

The Sardar biography that throws light on our times

Patel: A Life By Rajmohan Gandhi Aleph Books, 568 pages, Rs 1,199 There are many biographi

Climate change, El Niño rewrite Indian monsoon

The month of July exceeded its rainfall target despite forecasts of a below-normal month under a strengthening El Niño. The reason could be that climate change is amplifying monsoon complexity: West Pacific warming, Western Disturbances and evolving ocean conditions increasingly interact with El Ni&

Mumbai has just 1.28 sq.m. of open space per person: Study

Mumbai`s public space crisis is as much about mismanagement as it is about scarcity, and offers a governance roadmap that can be implemented without new legislation, according to a new report by the Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) and the NGO Alliance for Governance and Renewal (NAGAR).