Furore over Gurugram pub denying entry to wheelchair-bound patron

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[google-translator]

What do you look forward to when stepping out for a dinner with your family on a weekend? Lots of fun, right? But for Delhi-based Srishti Pandey, her recent trip to a Gurugram pub was quite the opposite. In a tweet, that has now gone viral, Srishti Pandey, a 22-year-old woman who is wheelchair-bound, alleged that she was denied entry into Raasta at DLF Cyberhub, Gurgram. “He (the pub’s front desk staff) told us pointing towards me that ‘andar customers disturb hojaynge’,” she wrote.

Pandey recalls the incident where she was “discriminated against publicly”. She narrates, “I went to Raasta with my best friend and her fam last night. This was one of my first outings in so long and I wanted to have fun. Bhaiya, my friend’s elder brother asked for a table for four. The staff at the desk ignored him twice. The third time he asked, the staff replied with ‘wheelchair andar nahi jaygi’. We thought it was an accessibility issue, but it wasn’t. We told him that we’d manage, just book us a table. What he said next left all of us shocked for a while. He told us pointing towards me that, ‘andar customers disturb hojaynge’, and denied us entry, with so much of ease.”

In response, Goumtesh Singh, founder-partner at Raasta-The Caribbean Lounge tweeted, “Let me start by apologising on behalf of the entire team Raasta for any bad experience that you may have had. Please rest assured if any of our members are found in the wrong, appropriate action will be taken against them.”

The incident has invited a furore on the internet. Actor Pooja Bhatt wrote she’s “terribly saddened”. “We suffer from an absolute lack of grace as a society (sic)”,” she said in a tweet. Also sharing her thoughts on the incident was disability rights activist Virali Modi. She wrote: “This is horrendous beyond belief. No one should be segregated or discriminated especially when it comes to who you are. A disability isn’t something we ask for. It’s not our fault. We shouldn’t be discriminated against on the basis of something we can’t do anything about.”

Echoing similar sentiments, disability rights activist and actor Jitendra K Biswal tweeted: “This is not only highly insensitive and criminal in nature but also a blatant violation of basic human rights. The perpetrators of the crime here must be taken to task and given exemplary punishment so that people think twice before misbehaving with a person with a disability like this. Criminal action should be initiated against them under Sec. 92A of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.”

The Gurugram police have also responded to the tweet seeking her details for swift action.

Author Tweets @Nainaarora8

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