Daily Times

Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra lashed out at popular Australia airlines Qantas Airways in an Instagram post after experiencing alleged racial discrimination during a row over luggage, an Indian publication reported. Shilpa’s post “Subject: #Quantas airways @qantas This should get your attention!” garnered lots of attention on Sunday for her candid comments and nuanced observations about racism and “brown people”. In her post, Shilpa wrote: “WE” are NOT #pushovers and they MUST know that being #callous and #Rude will NOT BE TOLERATED. Shilpa was travelling from Sydney to Melbourne by Quantas Airways, when she allegedly encountered one of their “grumpy” ground staffs being offensive and unnecessarily “rude” to her. Writing about what sparked the incident and left her fuming, Shilpa narrated how the staff prevented her from checking in her “half empty duffel bag” and forced her not once but twice to go to the “oversized luggage” counter, which was going to shut in five minutes. That’s when things went from bad to worse, the actor wrote, “We had no time to waste so we ran to the oversized baggage counter and requested her to put the bag through which she did after I told her that #Rude #Mel (that’s her name) had issues !!!…. to which another colleague joined in and reiterated my duffle wasn’t oversized and could’ve easily been checked in.” Shilpa shared a photo of her with the duffel bag in question and asked her followers, “Please tell me if that bag in the picture is oversized??!!”

Alleging racially motivated behaviour of the Qantas staff, Shilpa further wrote, “The point is .. This piece is only for #quantas airlines to know and take cognisance .. that their staff must be taught to be helpful and TONE can’t change with preference to #COLOUR.” Shilpa is not the only one, actor Priyanka Chopra was also a victim of racist attitude at a crowded airport. Priyanka was misbehaved with at the first class lounge of an airport, she told Karan Johar on his chat show, Koffee With Karan, in 2016. Priyanka had said that she later received an apology but only after an argument with the concerned airport personnel, reported DNA.

Published in Daily Times, September 24^th 2018.