Kolkata: A mall-goer in Kolkata learnt out the hard way what “acceptable” attire is while going out shopping after he was stopped by guards at a leading mall on Saturday. He was wearing a dhoti.
His friend, Debleena Sen, who was with him when the incident took place, said he was wearing a traditional Indian dress, a dhoti, and was “respectably dressed”.
“Yet another incident. After a series of restaurants it's now a mall refusing entry to someone. A man wearing a dhoti and kurta was not allowed to enter a mall in Kolkata today. Apparently wearing dhoti or lungi isn't allowed in this particular mall anymore,” Debleena, a Kolkata-based actor, wrote in a Facebook post.
“This form of racial profiling has induced in our society so much that it's disgusting,” Sen said in her post, adding that it was not just the guards who stopped the man, but the management of the mall was also complicit in the decision.
“The guards outside stopped him and confirmed with someone over the walky-talky and then let him enter only because the man in question argued in English,” she said.
However, the class bias witnessed did not stop there as when the two friends approached the mall management, a man there clearly stated that it was their policy to not let anyone wearing a dhoti or a lungi to enter the premises, she said. The mall authorities were not available for a comment.
“When the manager of the place (some woman) came in and sat down to talk, she told me strictly that I cannot video record anything even though I clearly have the right to record anything in a public space. That's when we decided it's best to leave the place to rot,” she said.
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