'Appalling and unacceptable': KTR demands Hyd Ikea apologise to Manipur woman

Hyderabad: Nearly a day after Akoijam Sunita from Manipur faced discriminatory behavior from IKEA staff, Telangana MAUD minister K.T Rama Rao asked IKEA to issue a proper apology to her.

Akoijam Sunita was treated rudely by the IKEA staff. She was reportedly discriminated against and frisked.

"Each and every item was pulled out of the shopping bag and checked if everything was in tandem with the bill," Akoijam told NewsMeter.

The issue came to light when her husband tweeted about it. "Only my wife, from Manipur got frisked for goods she bought. No one else before us. And then all supervisory staff came to defend the racism. Great show from an 'international store'," Akoijam's husband tweeted.

KTR quoted the tweet and said, "This is appalling and absolutely unacceptable."

"Please ensure a proper apology is issued & more importantly educate, sensitize & train your staff to respect all your customers graciously. Hope you will make amends asap," he tweeted.

'It was quite humiliating'

Akoijam was ruffled by the incident. "It was quite humiliating. There were multiple people ahead of us and at other counters and I don't think that they were being checked the same way," she said.

She said she never expected to receive racist treatment from an 'international store'. "The supervisors came forth only to defend the racism with a rather grim attitude. No sort of apology was given to me either," she added.

"The whole incident has ruffled us and it was quite distressing. Distressing because this is what our people face often and hope to not suffer this not-so-subtle racism in the country," Akoijam's husband said.

He added, "The person who checked my wife's shopping bags even sniggered that we had bought everything, didn't even care to reply why we were singled out. And the supervisors said yeah call the police if you want, we will deal. And it didn't end there."