A Pall At The Mall

It's a move which once again brings into focus class discrimination. Crossroads, India’s newest shopping mall and the ‘first of its kind’ as the PR hype would have it, has defined as first-class citizens those who own a cellphone, a club membership, credit card, student ID card or a frequent flyer card. Only such persons will be allowed free entry into the shopping plaza on Sundays and public holidays. Lesser mortals will have to buy a Rs 60 ‘redemption coupon’ before being allowed entry. Said Crossroads managing director, Jaydev Mody, in a press statement: "The Redemption Coupon System is not universally applicable and will not be a deterrent to any genuine patron of the mall."

The move has caused outrage in certain quarters of Mumbai. Human rights activists see this as an act which promotes elitism. It has also come as a shock to chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who, speaking to Outlook, disapproved of it. "It is the creation of a new class. This cannot be done in a country like India." In fact, the appalled CM also believes the move could be against the law. Says he: "With whose permission have they formulated a system such as this? It is completely unconstitutional."

Such criticism comes as a surprise to Crossroads’ management. The mall’s PR manager, Kishore Hattangadi, is taken aback at the charge that the Piramal group’s shopping mall is setting about to create a new class of Indians. "We are allowing everybody, even municipal school kids with ID cards, in. There is no attempt to classify any shoppers. This has been done at the request of our regular clients who found they had no elbow room in the mall on holidays in the midst of all the onlookers. In fact, they have thanked us for making it easier for them to shop."

That statement only brings about a bellow of outrage from businessman Sudarshan Loyalka. "The elite of India either bulldoze the poor or find novel ways of marginalising them in their own country. This is totally unconstitutional and their licence under the Shops and Establishments Act should be revoked immediately."

Well, yes and no. The Constitution does guarantee the right to free access to any citizen to any and every part of the country. Except for private property and establishments decreed out of bounds to common citizens by the Government of India like the space research station or a sensitive airport, for example. According to Dr Shrikant Jichkar, former Maharashtra minister, who himself runs the mall Orbit in Nagpur: "This is not a correct thing to do but no law prohibits a private property owner from reserving the rights to admission." Adds an activist lawyer: "Crossroads are being obnoxious. But there is no law to prevent them from being obnoxious."

However, Dr Jichkar believes what Crossroads has done could be challenged under the law as "they are using access to the public road for entry to the mall; many of the shoppers’ cars are parked on that road and if there is a law and order problem in front of their shop, it’ll be the taxpayers’ money that will be used to give them police protection". The taxpayers’ money has also been used to alter the duration of the traffic lights at the Haji Ali crossroad (from where the mall takes its name) to make it convenient for the mall’s clientele - creating a bottleneck. Since Crossroads opened a year ago, there have been many complaints from motorists over the traffic jams.

Dr Jichkar describes the Crossroads move as "neo-imperialist"; Loyalka calls it a "new kind of apartheid". The CM tends to agree. "It is curiosity value that is bringing people there in hordes. Once the novelty has worn off they’ll stop coming automatically. But, we cannot afford to make these kind of distinctions in a free country like ours."

Hattangadi’s stunned at the negative press Crossroads has got since they introduced their new system on July 30. The redemption coupons, he says, were introduced only to "restrict" unmanageable crowds, adding there was no attempt to make anyone feel inferior. "Crossroads has been looking after poor and destitute children, giving them days out at the mall from time to time. We do this without publicity, so why should we be seen as anti-poor?"

Perhaps because they haven’t been seen as pro-poor. As one activist lawyer says, not only should justice be done but injustice too shouldn’t be seen as being done.