The Delhi Golf Club is yet to issue a personal and formal apology to the governess from Meghalaya who was asked to leave the club because she looked like a “maid”. Despite the lapse of one week after the alleged incidence of racial discrimination, as reported by the victim and her employer, the Delhi golf club has issued an apology only to the member but not the governess. The club has constituted an internal committee to look into the matter.
Nivedita Barthakur Sondhi, whose son’s governess, Tailin Lyngdoh was asked to leave a lunch hosted by a member of the club in the heart of the capital on 25 June, told The Sunday Guardian, “The internal committee is a farce. We want the whole thing to be looked into by an independent committee. It is very sad that such discriminatory rules still prevail in this country and people with such colonial and feudal mindset still exist in powerful positions. The club is not a private body; it is on a government land and powerful people of this country are its members. Yet the club has failed to issue any personal apology to Lyngdoh who was discriminated against because she belonged to the Northeast.”
She further added that it was an assault not only on Lyngdoh, but on the entire Kashi community to which she belongs and to people who work as domestic helps in the country.
Incidentally, father-in-law of Sondhi, Prof M.L. Sondhi was the MP from New Delhi Parliamentary constituency where the club is located.
A delegation from the Northeast MPs’ forum is going to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi sometime next week to apprise him of the issue and tell him about the discrimination faced by the people of Northeast in other parts of the country.
The Women’s Commission of Meghalaya and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribe have already taken a suo-motto cognisance into this incident and have promised to take stern action in the matter.