Right-wing group disrupts Miss Rishikesh pageant rehearsal: ‘Against Uttarakhand’s culture’

“One of the group members, Raghav Bhatnagar, began objecting to the clothes worn by the participants,” said Makhija.

“We have been conducting the show as part of the Lions Diwali Mela and have never faced such objections before. We are providing a platform for local women so they can compete in larger beauty pageants. The top five contestants go on to participate in the Miss Uttarakhand pageant,” he said.

Makhija said the Lions Club is a social organisation for families of businesspeople based in Rishikesh.

The Miss Rishikesh pageant was held as scheduled on Saturday. Police said they did not receive any complaint about the rehearsal incident and the “dispute” was resolved between the two parties.

A purported video of the incident, which has since gone viral, Bhatnagar is seen kicking up a row saying the women are wearing “clothes that are against the sanskriti (culture) of Uttarakhand”. When approached for a comment, he refused to speak “to those who do not know the culture of Uttarakhand”.

In the video, the participants are seen confronting Bhatnagar and objecting to being filmed by the group. Bhatnagar is heard saying he would not allow the event to take place and asking the participants to “do it at their homes”. One of the show coordinators is heard saying that the programme is being conducted with the consent of the contestants’ parents. Despite the pushback, Bhatnagar is seen opposing the event, saying “this cannot go on in the city of pilgrimages”.

Muskan Sharma, one of the contestants, told The Indian Express that double standards are employed for women in the fashion industry.

“Our culture cannot be defined by the clothes we wear. This country is home to diverse cultures, and everyone should be respected. It is also important to be receptive to what the other person says… We have foreigners visiting Rishikesh, we don’t ask them to change their clothes just because they are in Uttarakhand,” Sharma said, adding that such programmes help them further their careers.

The Rashtriya Hindu Shakti Sangathan was registered as an organisation in January 2017. The group says it works to oppose “religious conversions” by supporting laws made against “love jihad”. Earlier, the organisation had raked up the matter of a plot of land in Muzaffarnagar being associated with the family of Pakistan’s first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan, leading to it being declared “enemy property”.

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