IMPORTANT UPDATE: A resort located at Kaziranga in Assam courted controversy when it allegedly asked security-men to keep a track of local guests entering its premises.
A Facebook post by a Guwahati native on Saturday went viral, drawing much criticism for the resort, when he disclosed that he, along with his family, were tracked by a policeman inside the resort on Friday.
Late on Saturday, the Facebook post was taken down. On Sunday morning, the Guwahati native wrote to The News Mill explaining his position.
“I do not wish to defame the resort in question in any way and this issue should not be politicised or viewed from a racial profiling or regionalism angle from the resort ownership’s as well as my perspective. My choice of words in the Facebook post was not correct and I should have given a more balanced view. The resort is certainly not meant exclusively for foreigners and lot of Indians have stayed there. But I think having confirmed bookings is necessary, something we might not have been aware of,” he clarified.
“The Facebook post was a way to express my anger at a particular incident involving the policeman who was following us around. I was angry that he humiliated my dad as well, citing security concerns… The policeman repeatedly told us about security concerns of the foreign guests and also asked us not to head to the restaurant as it’s only meant for guests….,” he wrote.
“Now, I am obliged to give the benefit of doubt to the security because, most likely, the policeman was over-zealous and was not being tactful in dealing with us. He should have been more respectful… I am sure there are general guidelines for right of access in almost all high-end hotels and resorts but the way it was implemented in practice in our case might be something the resort ownership might not approve of,” he added.
“(Also), there could have been some important people among the guests in the resort which the policeman didn’t tell us about, for which he was overly cautious,” he further wrote.
EDITOR’S NOTE: While we reported the story as it was published in an open forum, we do understand the concerns expressed by the writer (of the post) and his point that the post made was probably mixed with flow of emotions. As the Facebook post stands deleted, and the writer clarified his position, we decided to edit the article in a form which enables our readers to take note of the present state of the story.
We reached out to the management of the resort before publishing the first article itself. We await their response. This article may be further edited to accommodate the views of the resort management.
