Delhi restaurant denies entry to woman for ethnic wear

A restaurant in the upscale south Delhi Mall denied entry to a woman for wearing 'ethnic' Indian dress. However, the management of the Mall apologized to the guest for the behaviour of its staff after facing flak on social media.

Sangeeta K. Nag, Principal of Pathways Senior School in Haryana's Gurugram posted a video of the incident where an employee of the bar was heard saying to her, "ethnic is something we don't allow".

Following the video posted by Nag on March 10, on the day of Holi, the video went viral as it has now been viewed more than 166k times.

In her tweet, Nag wrote, "Denied entry as ethnic wear is not allowed! A restaurant in India allows 'smart casuals' but not Indian wear! Whatever happened to pride in being Indian? Take a stand!"

Facing flak on social media, Kylin and Ivy's Director Saurabh Khanijo took to Twitter the next day and wrote, "Kylin and Ivy are both homegrown brands and each member of the team, and myself stand tall as proud Indians. I would like to clarify that this untoward incident happened at Ivy, the new bar and not at Kylin."

"The minute this was brought to my notice, early this morning, I instantly messaged Sangeeta to apologise personally," he said.

"The gentleman in the video is a new team member and his opinion is his alone and in no way a representation of my or the team's view on the dress code restrictions. Nowhere in our company policy does it say that we will refuse ethnic wear. Our policy is clearly written at the entry gate - only discourages shorts and slippers," he added.

"You can be rest assured that the necessary action will be taken. I am deeply embarrassed at this conduct. I have been running Kylin for 15 years, a family restaurant and would like to reinforce that all are welcome always," the Director said.

However, by then Congress spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee also slammed the restaurant and demanded the Delhi government to cancel its licence.

"What the hell! If this Kylin and Ivy or any other restaurant still follows such colonial practices of not allowing guests wearing ethnic clothes, their licenses should be immediately cancelled. Shame!," she tweeted tagging Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Prime Minister's Office. IANS