GUWAHATI: Supermodel from Assam Kawaljit Singh Anand has called out designer Vijay Arora for sexual misconduct in a Facebook post. He has become the first male model to speak up about the elephant in the room, second in the fashion industry after Diandra Soares.
In a long Facebook post dated October 24, Kawaljit has accused designer Vijay Arora of removing him from selected models' list in multiple fashion weeks. “All this because I had pushed him away when he was trying to touch me inappropriately outside a party venue and while I was walking away angrily he told me categorically that he will make sure I never do any of the fashion weeks,” Kawaljit wrote in the post.
Kawaljit has further alleged that the designer sent him 'nasty' messages when asked for payment regarding a show done for him. He told me he'd make sure that I never get to walk for Lakme Fashion Week, wrote Kawaljit.
Kawaljit Singh Anand rose to fame after winning the title of Mr. India World in 2007. He is a well-established model based in Mumbai who is involved in judging and mentoring various personality development workshops.
The model was earlier hesitant to share his #MeToo story thinking whether men would get as much support as women when they speak against their offenders. He termed what he went through as #MenToo, starting a new trend on social media. A few days ago, he had put up another post on Facebook wondering when male models would speak about sexual harassment in the fashion world. A lot of people from the fashion industry had then urged Kawaljit to take the lead and start the trend.
Later, when Kawaljit mustered the courage and narrated his tale, eminent perrsonalities of the Indian film and entertainment industry including Diandra Soares, Natasha Singh and Dipannita Sharma came out in his support and praised him.
He believes that if men start getting support like women have got in the ongoing #MeToo movement in India, it could open the floodgates to many more horrifying stories which would bring the dark side of the fashion industry into the light.
However, designer Vijay Arora has reportedly denied all allegations put by the model. Speaking to the media, he said, "I have to state that Kawaljit Singh Anand did walk the ramp for my show before the fashion week and his walk was poor. Subsequently, when he auditioned for Lakme Fashion Week, I did not vote for him because he did not walk well and the other jury members agreed on the decision."
Arora further added that all the other allegations are false and baseless from someone who is clearly disgruntled with a jury decision and he's approaching lawyers for appropriate legal actions.
