New Delhi, Nov. 25: A group of artisans from Murshidabad are counting the cost of standing up to the wife of a cabinet minister ? who is also from Bengal ? at their stall here.
The kantha weavers from Katna are now in danger of being shut out from Dilli Haat, the most popular crafts bazaar in the capital, and have already faced police harassment.
Stall no. 105 at the bazaar had been doing good business selling quilts, cloth, shirts and tops when the minister’s wife dropped in one day with a friend.
“She told us to book certain items for her. She paid Rs 500 for a rather expensive item and said she would pay the entire amount later,” said Aalia, a volunteer with Street Survivors India (SSI), a Katna NGO that works with the artisans and had paid for the stall.
“We told her she should pay the entire price at one go and buy the item. At that point, her friend told us we had no idea who we were dealing with. An argument started. After a while, I just told her to leave. I said we did not want to sell the stuff to her.”
The two women stormed out but returned a while later with one of the organisers of Nature Bazaar Festival, currently on at Dilli Haat.
“We were told to apologise and sell to her whatever she wanted. For the sake of the artisans, I was ready to apologise to the organisers but there was no reason to say sorry to this woman. We had no idea she was a minister’s wife,” Aalia said.
Shabnam, who heads SSI, later contacted the minister’s wife and tried to make up for Aalia’s failure to recognise her. But the damage had already been done.
“We were told we are not welcome at Dilli Haat anymore,” Shabnam said.
Dilli Haat is the most coveted space for sale of handicraft, handloom and ethnic knick-knacks in Delhi, particularly in winter when visitors throng the place.
A day after the incident, two policemen paid the stall a visit. “They told us to clear out,” Shabnam alleged.
“We have booked this stall and paid money for it. There is no way we will be booted out this time. But we can never come back again,” she said.
