A finalist of the Miss Earth India beauty pageant has penned down a letter describing the harrowing experience the contestants go through after participating in the beauty pageant. In her open letter, which has gone viral on social media, the finalist blamed the management's attitude for ruining things for other contestants.
Talking about her experience, the finalist, whose identity has not been revealed, said that the winner of Miss Earth India 2016 – Rashi Yadav – was not decided based on any competition. On the grand finale day, the 25 contestants were called on stage and soon the winner was announced.
"We were to have 3 rounds respectively, of which the last round, gown round's choreography was not ready, again, another round was called off, and the most dramatic scene was when all the 25 contestants were called on stage, while some were still doing the ethnic round walk (1st round)," the finalist said in a statement.
"A man comes up on the stage and starts announcing that they already have a winner and that the 'winner' has been chosen on the basis of excellence, value, experience and what not!"
"They announced Rashi as the winner and all of us, the 24 girls stood there, humiliated and startled. People are now making up stories that we are being mean because we couldn't make it there. Really?" the contestant wrote.
She further clarified that there was no introduction round, no Question and Answer round, which is one of the important parts of judging a beauty contest, and no evening gown round.
"Some even said that the girls tried to attack her, when the truth is everybody was waiting in the green room, was broken enough even to speak, imagine, when you decide to go after a certain thing, putting so much effort into making ends meet, with all the expectations of family, friends, and well-wishers, suddenly, things change course, how will you feel?"
Broken right?
And about the pre-judging, it began on 1st October, where we all did our best and gave birth to a belief that we could pull it off on the finale.
And also, if they say it was based on the activities they had in the past, they can cross check the attendance or even go through our Pages and our timelines where they will see our work, our everyday activities, we did not leave any stone unturned.
Did we deserve this?
7 months is not a joke, we had to fly to Delhi back and forth every now and then, had to stay in hotels and follow the 'dress-code' for every activity they declared, all the expenses on our own.
We were told to bring a whole lot of clothes ranging from gowns to sarees to shorts to dresses to gym wears and again, last moment cancellations when most of us bought all that was required.
Read the full statement here.
