It wasn’t long after the name of one of the most expected winners of Miss Earth India 2016 was announced that a controversy ignited at the venue. According to sources, the other contestants deem it unfair to suddenly announce Rashi as the winner.

The finals of Miss Earth India 2016 were being held at the Ramada Gurgaon Central, in New Delhi on 3rd October 2016, when a controversy about both the pageant and the winner came up. It is said that the pageant was stopped in between and suddenly, after calling all the contestants on stage, the winner was announced, even before the introduction round could happen.

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This was confirmed by the contestants Chum Darang and Tanwi Dixit through their social media comments:

Here’s what the director of the beauty pageant, Maithani Pradeep, had to say:

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“A company from Bangalore send police and court orders claiming that Miss Earth belongs to them and not to Carousel production. Police came in and stopped the grand finale halfway forcefully. We tried our level best but at the end all suggested to honour the court orders. We did the same. Though some partners told us 22nd Sep onwards about receiving notices for not to be part of the event but as an organizer, I saw the notice today when police informed me and told that this is real. We selected a winner based on the feedback of all the people, groomers, pre-judging etc involved with the pageant but some parents and public started abusing the organizers. Looking at public sentiments, we uphold the decision. Now as organizers, we offered all the 25 finalists to send their top 12 list with ranking so that we can choose the winner by unanimous choice as we can’t hold an event named as Miss Earth India due to the court order. But if we don’t hear anything from all the girls in next 48 hours, we will hold the decision.

I saw the girls changing so fast. Respect was fake so I have rights to believe that abuses are also fake. But we have a job to finish so we will wait 48 hrs.

I respect everybody's hard work though. With Cheryl Talam Hansen”

This year’s Miss Earth India 2016 received a lot of backlash not just from the contestants, but also the industry experts felt that the sudden winner announcement was unfair. Ritika Ramtri, a renowned coach for Pageant and grooming and who has successfully trained many Femina Miss India winners commented in favour of the contestants. This is what she had to say:

It seems that this year, too, India should lose its hope to win the Miss Earth crown at the October finals of Miss Earth 2016. All we wish to see is the beautiful contestants happy. After all, stress won’t do any good!

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