Lenskart under fire over ‘hijab allowed, bindi banned’ rule; Peyush Bansal responds after backlash

GURUGRAM: Lenskart, one of India’s biggest eyewear chains, found itself engulfed in a religious discrimination row this week after a screenshot, purportedly from its employee style guide, spread rapidly across social media. The document appeared to prohibit staff from wearing the bindi, tilak and kalawa, symbols central to Hindu practice, while permitting the hijab. The internet, predictably, exploded.

The spark came from writer Shefali Vaidya, who claimed to have verified the document’s authenticity before posting it with a pointed challenge to Lenskart founder Peyush Bansal. “This is page 11 of the Lenskart style guide,” she wrote, accusing the company of running double standards in a Hindu-majority country. Her post cascaded into a torrent of outrage, with users vowing boycotts and branding the company “anti-Hindu.”

Bansal moved quickly to contain the damage. Taking to X, he insisted the viral document was outdated and no longer reflected company policy. “Our policy has no restrictions on any form of religious expression, including bindi and tilak,” he wrote, adding that grooming guidelines had “evolved over the years” and that obsolete versions had been wrongly taken as current. “We apologise for the confusion and concern this situation has caused.”

He went further, wrapping himself in the tricolour for good measure. “Lenskart was built in Bharat, by Indians, for Indians,” Bansal declared, stressing that thousands of staff wear their faith “proudly every day” across its stores. “I will never let that be compromised.”

Whether the damage-control exercise lands will depend on how many customers believe an embarrassing policy was merely archaic, or rather that it took a viral storm to quietly bury it.