The Indian community in Australia has called out Indian film star Shilpa Shetty who alleged racism by Australia’s national carrier Qantas.
The Indian actress was flying from Sydney to Melbourne on Sunday with the airline when she alleged she was not treated well due to her ‘colour’.
“TONE can’t change with preference to COLOUR .”WE” are NOT pushovers and they MUST know that being callous and Rude will NOT BE TOLERATED,” she wrote in an Instagram post.
While the actress alleged racism by the staff over an issue with her carry-on bag, the Indian community in Australia called her out for labelling bad service as racism.
“Racism and prejudice are very strong words. And I wish "Stars" would not write things on social media just to vent - especially when there is a HUGE difference between bad customer service from Qantas and the dreaded 'R' Word!" Mitu Bhowmick, the Director of the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne wrote on her Facebook.
“I don’t think every slight people face is due to 'colour'. I wonder what white people say when they get bad service?” she added.
Many other members of the community joined in.
Qantas aircraft are seen at Sydney Airport, in Sydney, Wednesday, August 22, 2018. Source: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
“R card is always handy! Guess people forget its Australia and VIP culture doesn’t exist here,” said Puneet Gulati said.
“Interesting assessment. I’ve been travelling Qantas and never experience racism but rude staff YES. Being coloured there is a fine line between the two,” Jan Sadhu said.
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The airline, however, apologised to the actress via a tweet.
Almost a decade ago, Ms Shetty shot to international limelight after winning the UK show Celebrity Big Brother in 2007 after she was allegedly racially abused on air. She is best known for her films like Life in a metro, Dhadkan among many others.
She was in Melbourne to judge a beauty pageant.
