A Hindu youth group has slammed Bollywood actress Preity Zinta after she was seen wearing a pair of jeans to a temple in Durban this week. Members of the Hindu Students’ Association, based at the Howard College campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, told the Sunday Times Extra that the co-owner of the Indian Premier League Punjab Kings XI cricket team was “totally wrong” to have prayed in jeans at the Durban Hindu Temple in Somtseu Road. A spokesman for the body, Kreesan Frank, said: “She should get her priorities straight — whether she wants to look fashionable for her cricket team or pay homage to God. But Durban Hindu Temple committee chairman Moheni Lillkant defended the actress this week, saying it was known she was on the way to a match and had arrived unannounced to conduct her own private prayer without the use of a temple priest.
She was appropriately clad. It was her private prayer, not a public function, ” she said, adding that the temple had not received any complaints. SA Hindu Maha Sabha president Ashwin Trikamjee explained that the Hindu watchdog body could not dictate to people what to wear, but that they should respect a place of worship. He said in the US jeans were considered formal wear.
This is a petty reaction. There is nothing wrong with it.Trikamjee said it was the right of individual temples to set their own rules. “The fact that dress codes vary among temples tell us something. Zinta and her management could not be reached for comment.
