Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Minority Morcha leader Nazia Elahi Khan ambushed a Lenskart store in Mumbai, Maharashtra, following the controversy surrounding the suppression of religious symbols at the company. She accused the Muslim store manager of forcing Islam inside the store and applied a tilak on every Hindu employee.
A video surfaced early Monday, April 20, where Nazia Khan entered a Lenskart branch with her crew, including a cameraman, and boldly asked to meet the “head of the store.”
When the store manager approached her, she immediately asked his name. “Mohsin Khan,” he replied. “Isliye band karvaya tilak? Mohsin Khan ho isliye? (Is that why you stopped everyone from wearing tilak? Because you are Mohsin Khan?),” she asked.
She then ordered her crew members to mark Mohsin with a tilak.
“Lenskart has said that staff cannot wear a kalawa (sacred thread), tilak, janeu (sacred cord), tulsi mala, or rudraksha. But the hijab is allowed. So what does this mean — Bharat desh me sharia lagu karwana hai kya (You want to implement Sharia law in India)?” she berated the store manager.
“Musalmano nai toh Pakistan leliya. Ab yaha kya peetna hai bhai? Chaati kyun peeta ja raha hai? (Muslims have already secured Pakistan. So what is there to complain about now? Why is all this chest-beating going on?),” she continued.
“They do wear tilak?” Mohsin Khan tried to explain. Nazia Khan, however, demanded that all Hindu staff identify themselves and accused the store manager of forcing the practice of his religion.
“Kaha dikhao saare staff ko bulao dekhe kis kis ke maatha pe tilak hai. Tum Mohsin Khan toh sabko Mohsin Khan banaoge? (Show me — call all the staff over. Let’s see whose forehead bears a tilak. If you are Mohsin Khan, you will turn everyone into a Mohsin Khan?),” she said.
One of her team members made a jibe, “You want to do TCS here?” referring to the Nashik case, where a woman employee from the Tata Consultancy Services BPO unit accused a senior employee of sexual harassment and forced religious conversions.
The store manager repeatedly denied the claims to no avail. Meanwhile, after calling the Hindu staff one by one, Nazia applied tilak on them, saying, “There is no shame in bearing one, Even I have one even though I am a Muslim.”
After shouting religious slogans, Nazia again targeted the Muslim store manager. “Mohsin Khan hai yeh (This is Mohsin Khan),” She stated. “Yeh apna namaz chodta hai kya? Yeh apna roza chodta hai kya? Yeh apne Islam se koi bhi compromise karta hai kya? (does he ever skip his prayers? Does he skip his fasts? Does he ever compromise in his religion?),” she questioned the staff rhetorically.
“Toh aap kyun kar rahe hai? Aap kyun karenge? Tilak lagake aayega (So why are you? Why will you? Come wearing a tilak),” she ordered the Hindu employees.
While leaving the store, she warned that the employees would be “checked again” to ensure tilak is being worn.
Lenskart’s new guidelines does not restrict any religion
Lenskart came under fire on April 16, after a social media post shared the company’s style guide, allegedly banning some Hindu religious symbols while approving hijab and turban.
However, the company took the issue in their hands and released a fresh in-store guide which “explicitly and unambiguously welcome every symbol of faith and culture – bindi, tilak, sindoor, kalawa, mangalsutra, kada, hijab, turban and more.”
“Lenskart was built in Bharat, by Indians, for Indians. Our 2400+ stores are run by people who bring their beliefs, their traditions, their identity to work every day. That is not something we will ever ask anyone to leave at the door,” the company said in a statement.
