Panel set up to probe Golf Club incident

New Delhi: Three days after a Meghalaya woman was allegedly denied entry into the Delhi Golf Club and allegedly faced racial discrimination, Justice (retired) Mukul Mudgal will head a committee to look into the woman’s charge that she had been asked to leave the dining room of The Delhi Golf Club because her traditional Khasi attire looked like a “maid’s uniform” to the staffers.

The Delhi Golf Club set up a three-member panel on Wednesday, which will include lawyer Renu Sehgal and journalist Sunayana Arora Singh, the CEO and founder of an NGO, Organ India. “Since there are conflicting versions of the incident, it is appropriate to institute an inquiry by independent persons, who are not the members of the club,” the club said in a statement.

Tailin Lyngdoh, who was wearing a ‘jainsem’, a traditional Khas-i dress, said she was asked to leave a lunch hosted by a member of the club in the heart of the capital on June 25. She said the manager informed her that the outfit she wore was not allowed in the club.

The club, an elite golfing establishment situated in acres of rolling greens, said that Shailja Laxman, its HR manager, will provide administrative assistance to the three- member committee.

“The club shall take further action in this regard after receiving the report of the inquiry committee,” it said. Union minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday called the incident a “case of racial discrimination” and asked the city police chief to take appropriate action on it. The Union urban development ministry also sought a report from the club on the issue. The Delhi Golf Club said on Tuesday it had apologised to the member who had invited Lyngdoh and her employer to lunch but added that Lyngdoh had not been asked to leave the club. Mudgal, retired Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court, had earlier headed a committee, which was directed by the Supreme Court to conduct a probe into allegations of corruption in the Indian  Premier League.