Fans defend Priyanka Chopra from Jaya Jaitly’s comment on her ‘British aristocrat’ dress
Former Samata Party president and textile revivalist Jaya Jaitly was disappointed to see that Indian actor Priyanka Chopra opted to dress up like a “British aristocrat” at the royal wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. She says she could have opted for a “beautiful” sari as independent India has so much to show to the world.
“How sad an Indian actor attending the royal wedding in UK should dress like a British aristocrat at Ascot rather than represent a free and independent India in a beautiful sari,” Jaitly had tweeted on May 19, the day of the wedding.
However, her comments did not sit well with Priyanka’s fans. They are advocating her right to dress the way she likes and that she was not representing India at the event but merely attending her friend’s wedding.
“Sorry Ms Jaitley, you are absolutely wrong on this. It wasn’t an India Day celebration there and she wasn’t part of an official Indian Delegation. What’s wrong with us these days? Typical North Korean!!!,” a Twitter user replied on her tweet. “Do you know the meaning of free and independent India or Indians??? I guess no! Priyanka is independent and she will wear whatever she want..sad to see such kinda woman like u who pulls others down,” wrote another.
Others also questioned Jaitly’s decision to tweet in English rather than in Hindi. “Ap bhi hindi me tweet keejiye na iske baari me.... Kyun angrezi me logon ke uppar iss tarah se taang udathe hai aap?? (You should also tweet in Hindi about it. Why are you criticising people in English like this?),” read a reply on the tweet.
Priyanka wore a lilac Vivian Westwood skirt suit to the wedding. Her dress also landed her on several international publications’ ‘best dressed’ lists. But none of that was enough to impress Jaitly who criticised Bollywood stars for their fashion choices in an interview to IANS. “All these actors, they dress up in all these fancy gowns by fancy designers who pay them for wearing their outfits and so they get fat money. Now, I keep feeling as I am loyal to our weavers and our textiles in India and we are working all our lives to revive it,“ she said.
“Even in Hollywood (red carpets), where if I see Deepika Padukone wearing long gowns... they never really can compete. It’s like Indian fashion designers trying to do western dresses... Why don’t they wear most beautiful gorgeous sari, and everyone will go ‘wow’.”
Some commentors on Jaitly’s post reminded her how the royal wedding had a dress code which required the women to wear hats. Jaitly has a counter-argument ready: “In the royal wedding, it was all about inclusiveness and welcoming others’ society, people, race and colour. The royal family and all these people went all out to emphasise the American-African identity of the bride and everyone was raving about the bride’s mother too because they were different. I felt sad when I think that why do we copy them and never quite get it right. We have so much to show and show off.”
On the dichotomy of a dress code, Jaitly pointed out: “When somebody in a village in India says ‘Sar dhako (cover your head)’, we don’t want that... When somebody says, ‘Don’t wear jeans in college’, we say ‘Who are you to tell us a dress code?’. But if Queen in England descends an invitation and say you got to wear a hat, which is not part of your culture, you will start saying there was a dress code. I don’t understand these various double standards.”