Tech hub: Miss Universe parents feel threatened
By Rahul Kumar

Gurgaon is the most important tech hub in North India. Every major tech company including Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Infosys and others have offices in Gurgaon. India’s leading BPO Genpact has its HQ there. Gurgaon is not only frequented by the corporate honchos from India and abroad but also by the Bollywood stars and big wigs from political families.

But despite being a critical hub for technology, parts of Gurgaon are unsafe for the IT techies and BPO Agents who work and live there. In July, the highly regarded Airtel GM Ashish Luthra and his wife Nandita - a corporate lawyer with Microsoft were robbed from a high security gated community.  Every second day, Agents complain of being harassed and threatened if they have a late shift.

Now techgoss had learnt that the parents of Miss India Universe, Ekta Chowdhry, who is in Bahamas these days for the world beauty pageant representing India, have cancelled their trip to the country after allegedly receiving persistent threats from the local goons. Living in DLF City Phase II, the terrified couple was to fly at 10.30 pm on August 20 to extend support to their daughter.  The parents said that the police officials paid heed to their complaint only after they introduced themselves as the parents of Ekta Chowdhry.

“The police officials had not been listening to us initially when we lodged a compliant against the local goons, but when we introduced ourselves as Ekta’s parents, they swung into action. We did not want to use status for such a trivial issue. It means one has to use his or her VIP status in Gurgaon to be listened to,” said Sidharth. 

Very few know that the Chowdhry family has a very strong political background. Ekta’s grandfather Braham Parkash was the first chief minister of Delhi.  The father Sidharth, a senior executive with top real estate company DLF in Gurgaon said, “We are so threatened that we fear that the goons would attack our house in our absence and damage it. We therefore have decided to call off the trip. We had got our visas after six weeks of efforts and tickets were ready. We had to fly today 10.30 pm on Thursday. We talked to Ekta over phone on Thursday and informed her of our decision. We however, have not told her the exact reason for fear of distracting her concentration from the pageant.”

“We have a vacant plot right in front of our house where some of the anti-social elements would illegally congregate and had also set up a tea kiosk. They had been passing lewd remarks and creating nuisance for the past few days and when we reported the matter with the local police, they started threatening us. After lots of efforts we managed to get rid of the tea kiosk but we continue to get threats from the people who claim to have enough clout in the political circles,” said Rita Chowdhry, the mother. 

She said that she had decided to cancel the trip following the incident. The family had moved to DLF City from Saket, Delhi about eight months back and settled here.   Alok Mittal the joint commissioner of police said that the tea kiosk had been removed from the plot and there was nothing to worry for the parents of Ekta. He said, “I have personally spoken with her parents and told them that there was nothing to worry about. I am surprised if they have cancelled their trip to Bahamas. It is unfortunate and they should express lack of confidence in the law and order situation here.” as