Delhi club incident clear case of racial discrimination: Rijiju

New Delhi, June 27

Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday described as a "clear case of racial discrimination" an incident at The Delhi Golf Club, when its staffers asked a woman from Meghalaya to leave a dining room because her traditional Khasi attire looked like a "maid's uniform".

He asked Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik to take appropriate action on the June 25 incident, which, he said, also reflected an "elitist mindset".

Rijiju raised the matter with Patnaik after Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma discussed the issue with the minister.

"I will also speak to the urban development ministry on how such privileges can be given to people with such mindsets," he said about the club, which occupies prime land in the heart of the national capital.

An incensed Rijiju told reporters no one had the right to judge a person by his or her attire.

"It was a clear case of racial discrimination. Such an elitist mindset of some people will destroy the social fabric of the country," he said.

The minister of state for home, who is from Arunachal Pradesh, said the incident was "unfortunate and condemnable".

"Action should be taken. Merely issuing a statement is not enough," he said.

A woman from Meghalaya was asked to leave the dining room of a plush Delhi club for wearing a traditional Khasi outfit which its staffers believed looked like a “maid's uniform”, her employer said.

Tailin Lyngdoh, who was wearing a jainsem, traditionally worn by Khasi women, was invited with the employer, Dr Nivedita Barthakur Sondhi, to a lunch hosted by a member of The Delhi Golf Club in the heart of the capital on June 25.

“Two staffers came to Lyngdoh and told her she looked like a maid and was not allowed there,” Sondhi told PTI.

The inference was that she was dressed differently and her clothes made her "look like a maid", Sondhi added.

Lyngdoh told reporters she was asked to leave while they were having lunch.

"The manager said, 'It is not allowed, so you must go out.' I went out, but it was very sad for me to hear such a thing," she said.

Lyngdoh, who is Sondhi's son's governess, said she had travelled to many places but had never heard such a remark.

"Everybody has complimented me on my traditional dress and nobody has ever said such a thing to me," she said.

In a statement issued later, the club said it had apologised to the member who had hosted the lunch, while maintaining that the guests had not been asked to leave the club premises.

In a Facebook post, Sondhi said, "Lyngdoh, an extremely proud, Khasi lady who has travelled the world in her jainsem from London to UAE, was thrown out of the Delhi Golf Club because her dress was taken for a maid's uniform!"

Though she was at the lunch as an invitee, she was "humiliated", Sondhi wrote.

The "two gatekeepers" did not apologise to her, she said.

"It is appalling that a citizen of India is judged on her dress and treated as a pariah," she wrote.

The club in its statement said the incident could have been "handled better" by a staff member, who has been asked to give an "explanation".

"Disciplinary action is in process," it said.

The club said "an apology has been made" to the member whose guest Lyngdoh was.

"This has been unconditionally accepted. It was also confirmed that the guests were not asked to leave the club premises," the statement said.

Sondhi, however, said neither she nor Lyngdoh had been contacted by the club or received an apology from it.

The Ministry of Urban Development has asked for a report about the incident from the club. — PTI