‘Too white’ Indian beauty queen stokes NZ race row

New Zealand has found itself at the centre of another race row after a woman was booed at a beauty contest for being too pale skinned.

Jacinta Lal, whose father is Indo-Fijian and mother is a white New Zealander, was taking part in Miss IndiaNZ when she claims she was verbally abused for "not being Indian enough".

The news comes just a few days after the Indian government issued a diplomatic protest in response to racist comments made by New Zealand TV presenter Paul Henry about Sheila Dikshit, the Delhi Chief Minister, and Sir Anand Satyanand, the New Zealand governor-general.

"There is no difference between what Paul Henry is saying and what those select few Indians were saying," said Lal, speaking to the New Zealand Herald. "They are all wrong and they should not say things like that."

The pageant organiser, Dharmesh Parikh, said he had slapped down two or three official complaints about whether the blonde-haired and blue-eyed contestant was eligible to enter the competition.

But, according to Serena Fiso, the mother of Jacinta's boyfriend, the atmosphere when Jacinta was unveiled as the winner of the Wellington heat was "appalling".

"We were just dumbfounded. The Indian community seems to have taken great offence to Henry's comments but, when I attended that beauty pageant, I saw huge offence coming back the other way," she said.

The incident affirms that simply sacking Paul Henry has not dealt with the underlying racial tension in the country - especially with thousands of fans calling for the presenter to be reinstated. ·