The problem in Pune: Sorry Indians, it's we who hate the poor, not McDonald's

McDonald’s is facing a PR crisis of sorts in India. The reason: McDonald’s staff in Pune threw out a destitute kid.   According to the story, which was widely shared on Reddit as well other social media and mainstream media sites, good samaritan Shaheena Attarwala, spotted the boy standing outside the restaurant and offered to buy him a Fanta float. She also did something that very people in India rarely do. She took the boy with herself into the restaurant. However, things didn’t go well in there and a member of the staff  “pushed and threw the kid out”. When Attarwala protested saying that the boy was with her, he replied, “These kind of people are not allowed inside”. Such is the impact of the outrage sparked by the incident on social media that the company has called for an internal probe and has suspended the “concerned security personnel involved in the incident” till the enquiry is complete. The question on everyone’s mind: How dare McDonald’s throw out a poor kid? It’s the perfect story of how big bad corporate America treats poor Indians in their own country. Except that it’s not.  While Attarwala is right to point out that McDonald’s shouldn’t have thrown out the kid, it’s hard to ignore the hypocrisy inherent in such self-righteousness. For starters, in a country where children beg on the streets, at traffic lights, and under flyovers, most of us have internalised a certain all-too familiar attitude when it comes “to these kinds of people”. We are quick to ignore the beggar women, the children or the transgendered person, who will often bang at car windows at traffic signals or wait outside restaurants asking for food or money. Most of us, and I am not exempting myself, are quick to dismiss ‘these people,’ with a wave of hand or a nod of the head. [caption id=“attachment_1136879” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. Reuters[/caption] So when a McDonald’s security guard or employee decides to remove a destitute child from the restaurant, it is a by-product of this general middle-class attitude to the poor. Frankly, it’s not hard to imagine customers in India throwing a fit if McDonald’s were to allow the poorest of the poor from India to enter, even if accompanied by a good samaritan. In Japan, McDonald’s homeless friendly attitude has seen the rise of the term McRefugee for those who end up taking shelter at McDonald’s restaurants that operate for 24 hours. In fact last year, McDonald’s apologised after one of its restaurants in Japan put up a notice saying , “Those whom we deem unfit to use our store, including the unclean and the homeless, are asked not to enter.” The sign was later changed to remove the word homeless. McDonald’s doesn’t have a record of shutting its doors on the poor in America either.  With its Dollar Menu, Micky D’s has long been a destination for the homeless in America, who often flock to its restaurants for a warm, affordable meal. As an all-American brand, it has long taken pride in the fact that it caters to diverse clientele, from the very poor to rich, all of whom crave its burgers and fries. In contrast, McDonald’s in India is defined wholly as middle-class destination.  In my hometown, Lucknow, McDonald’s was the highlight for the city, a sign that globalisation and all it’s glorious benefits, never mind the chewy-processed burgers, had finally arrived. McDonald’s is cool precisely because it represents a haven from the riff-raff. And that’s what makes the middle class outrage over the Pune restaurant hypocritical. What if the boy had walked into a respectable middle class McDonald’s on his own accord, to try and buy a Fanta float, and then find a place to sit? Would the folks in the restaurant have been okay? Not likely. Before long, somebody would have told the staff to get the boy out. While we are quick to pat ourselves on the back when we decided to give away the doggie-bag from the restaurant to a homeless person, if a poor person were to walk into that same restaurant and buy his own meal, it’s not just the management that would disapprove. And this even as more and more rich people jump on the upmarket fad of taking their maid to the restaurant. Very often, the maid is just another child or teen, who has been put in charge of the baby and the babas, while the parents can eat in peace. Very rarely will you see these maids eating the same meal or even sitting at the same table with the family. So be it McDonald’s or a fancy five-star, the truth is that in India we don’t want to see the homeless, the poor, even the ones who work for us, share any space with us as equals, be it restaurant tables or apartment lifts. So why not point our finger at the mirror before we turn it on McDonald’s.