Rampaging Sena dents viability of Sahar hotel

The management of Bharat Hotels is seriously worried about the viability of Mumbai’s Hotel Intercontinental The Lalit at Sahar, which was vandalised by Shiv Sainiks on Wednesday.

A Sena mob was protesting the hotel management’s refusal to reinstate some employees who were sacked six months ago. Led by party MP Sanjay Raut and MLC Anil Parab, Suryakant Mahadik, Gurunath Khot and Subhash Kanta Sawant, the mob demanded a meeting with the hotel authorities, and getting no response, went on a rampage.

A top hotel source, speaking from Delhi, admitted that such vandalism, coming at a time when the tourism industry had been badly hit, would force the management to look at the hotel’s future viability. “Some people are playing with the lives of more than 600 staff at the hotel for their personal gain,” he said.

According to the source, the Mumbai hotel, with 368 rooms, had been a loss-making operation from inception and closure of the unit would not make any difference to the Lalit group’s other operations.

A hotel staffer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Bhartiya Kamgar Sena, the Shiv Sena’s union wing, was pressuring all staff to join them. According to him, Ramesh Khot and Shashikant Khot, son and nephew of Shiv Sena union leader
Gurunath Khot, who were working as stewards at the hotel, were terminated by the hotel management for allegedly misbehaving with guests, staff and management.

Sudhendu Pandit, general manager of the hotel, could not be contacted.

Shiv Sena MLA Subhash Desai said, “We are fighting for the cause of the Marathi manoos. If the management is not meeting our demand for reinstating retrenched staff, we will compel them to shut it,” he said.

Gurunath Khot said he would respond to DNA’s queries on Friday.