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Cadbury India apologises for Kashmir ad

Chocolate-maker Cadbury India has apologised for a print advertisement showing a map of India highlighting Kashmir with a slogan "Too good to share" after members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party objected to the ad.

"We offer our sincere apologies to any section of the public that may have been offended by this advertisement," the company said in a statement. "(There) was no intention whatsoever to offend the sentiments of the public."

The advertisement, which ran in the Mumbai edition of an English daily on August 15, said it was issued in the spirit of Independence Day.

It also said "Cadbury Temptations - International chocolates you'd love to share but won't".

The apology came after members of BJP from Mumbai protested against the advertisement by the Indian subsidiary of British confectionery and beverages group Cadbury Schweppes Plc, saying it trivialised the Kashmir issue.

"Thousands of people have lost their lives for Kashmir," Vinod Tawde, BJP president of the Mumbai region, told Reuters. "Why should the company use it for a commercial purpose? People in India are very sensitive about Kashmir."

Tawde said he was "satisfied with the apology but companies, especially multinational firms who are not aware of the ethos of the country, should not make such mistakes".

Kashmir is at the centre of a tense eight-month military stand-off between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan who have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region. They came close to another one in May, but pulled back after intense international pressure.

India controls just under half the region, Pakistan a third and China the rest.

The old foes have massed a million men on their common border since a December attack on the Indian Parliament which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based guerrilla groups fighting its rule in Kashmir.

India says its troops will remain on the border until Pakistan stops militant incursions into Kashmir and dismantles training camps which New Delhi says exist in Pakistan.

India blames Pakistan for fomenting violence in Kashmir, a charge denied by Islamabad which says it provides only moral and diplomatic support to what it calls a Kashmiri freedom struggle.

Officials say more than 35,000 people have died so far in the 13-year-old rebellion, but separatists put the toll closer to 80,000.

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