TORONTO: Listings for Indian flag-themed doormats on global retailer Amazon’s Canadian site were removed after a series of protests by people from India and of Indian-origin.

In recent days, people from India found the unwelcome sight of the doormats when they visited the website.

The doormats were described as “Personalised Durable Machine-Washable Indoor/Outdoor” items and featured a stylised version of the tricolour. They were available on Amazon.ca’s marketplace from the vendor XLYL.

XLYL also lists similar doormats featuring the flags of countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States.

The troubling listings for the doormat with the Indian flag were posted on Facebook by Phoenix-based Ratnesh Mishra.

The presence of the product irked some Indian-origin browsers, and a few started a social media campaign targeting Amazon for allowing the product online.

Among them was Mishra, who said a similar incident had occurred in the summer of 2016. “This is really pathetic and (due to the) ignorance of such a big e-commerce organisation. This is not first time we have fought against them,” he said.

The Canadian chapter of the Overseas Friends of the BJP was among the critics, and it said in a social media post that it “condemns insult of the Indian flag”.