Indian convenor of Overseas Friends of BJP in Amsterdam fights racial discrimination case
Pratima Singh has accused the NN Group NV of racial discrimination, bullying, lying, blackmailing, perjury and several other frauds in the period 2013-2015. In retaliation the group board members dragged Pratima to court on charges of stalking and defamation.
Pratima Singh, convenor of the Overseas Friends of the BJP in Netherlands finds herself in a messy legal tangle. She is fighting NN Group NV, a prominent Dutch bank and insurance company in a court of law. An Amsterdam court is expected to give its ruling in the case on February 20.
Pratima Singh has accused the NN Group NV of racial discrimination, bullying, lying, blackmailing, perjury and several other frauds in the period 2013-2015. In retaliation the group board members dragged Pratima to court on charges of stalking and defamation.
Pratima Singh, a 42-year-old mother of an 11-year-old, accused NN Group NV, the organisation she joined in 2008, of racial discrimination. Pratima claims she was a star performer in the group, but 2013 is when things changed with her manager flinging racial abuses at her.
Talking to India Today from Amsterdam, Pratima said, "The manager would talk to me in Dutch deliberately though I did not know the language. She would make fun of my Indian origin, was not ready to set my targets. She would say I was kind of a taxi driver like most Indians, while I am a skilled knowledge migrant for society."
PUBLIC HUMILIATION
Pratima Singh decided to escalate the matter to the board in May of 2013. But according to her the company defended the superior's behaviour. The subsequent male manager that she was deputed to, would publicly humiliate her and make fun of her Indian roots.
Some twenty odd Indian community leaders from spiritual groups, political groups and medical professions from Europe and the Netherlands attended the last court hearing on February 6. But the judge refused to admit these names as witnesses in the case. In this hearing the financial group had sought restrain on Pratima Singh from taking to social media and penalising her with 5000 euros for any breach.
Born and raised in Pune, Pratima had the opportunity of an audience with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Brussels visit. Pratima and her team of volunteers had facilitated travel of several hundred Indians stuck at the Brussels airport in the wake of a terror strike, via Netherlands. Modi had acknowledged the work of these volunteers.
"I am a whistleblower. I want that good should win over evil. I want the judge to choose honesty and liars should not win," Pratima told India Today.
Pratima Singh said the board members misused the services of the company doctor to unilaterally terminate her services while she was fighting mental trauma, anxiety in 2014 and had traveled to Pune to be with her family and receive treatment. Pratima has claimed damages worth twenty million euros, including five million euros towards her medical treatment costs.