Mabibigat ang akusasyon ni former Miss Grand International 2024 Rachel Gupta laban sa Miss Grand International Organization (MGI), na pinamumunuan ng presidente na si Nawat Itsagrisil at ng chief operations officer na si Teresa Chaivisut.
Nakaranas daw ang Indian beauty queen ng pagmamaltrato, body shaming, at pagkagutom.
Naging bahagi rin daw ng regular duties niya ang pagla-live selling sa Tiktok ng mga diumano'y mumurahing produkto.
Halos isang oras ang haba ng video na inilabas ni Rachel ngayong araw, May 29, habang lumuluha.
Read: Miss Grand International 2024 Rachel Gupta: resigned or dethroned?
"I don’t want anyone else to be in the same position as me so, that’s why, I am doing this.
"Harrassment, mental torture, mistreatment.
"I want you to know what I’ve gone through and I want you to know how much I’ve been silently struggling behind my smile,” ang umpisa ng eksplosibo niyang rebelasyon.
"The reason I won is because of the amount of public support I had.
"Truly, it’s impossible to work with the Miss Grand International Organization.
"The way they are, the way they treat people, they only care about money, like that is their only thing.
"It made so much sense to me later on when I saw that so many people were dropping their licenses because nobody wants, even after winning, nobody wants their girls to be in this kind of position."
Read: CJ Opiaza, bagong Miss Grand International 2024?
Noong November 2024, kumalas ang Miss Grand India sa MGI kahit pa nanalo ang representative nitong si Rachel. Ang sinabing rason sa official statement: different “visions and goals.”
Ganundin ang ginawa ng Miss Grand Honduras.
Ayon sa national director nitong si Amelia Vega D'Sanchez: "The MGI organization is only interested in our money..."
RACHEL GUPTA'S ALLEGATIONS
Kinoronahan si Rachel noong October 25, 2024, sa MGI Hall sa Bangkok, Thailand.
Nung mga sumunod na araw, nag-post siya sa Instagram ng mga tinawag niyang "defining moments."
May mga larawan pa sila ni Nawat Itsagrisil, at isa rito ay may caption na, "The GREATEST, The GRANDEST."
Pero base sa kuwento ni Rachel, kabaligtaran ang naging karanasan niya after ng coronation night.
WHERE RACHEL STAYED IN THAILAND
Una na rito ay ang naging temporary residence niya habang nasa Thailand, kung saan nakabase ang MGI.
Kuwento ni Rachel: "Immediately after winning, they moved me into a cramped hotel room, a small little hotel room, where even all my suitcases, they couldn’t open properly, like, there wasn’t enough space for that.
"And I lived in that hotel room for more than a month.
"And from there, they shifted me to a dilapidated house, which was way on the outside of the city, like an hour or an hour and a half away from the city center, from MGI Hall, the office, everything."
COMMUNICATION COST
Siya raw ang nag-provide ng sarili niyang mobile device.
"I had to buy a phone over there, I had to buy a Thai phone number, so that I could stay in touch with my friends and family because I was staying there for so much time."
NO FOOD PROVIDED
Pagsisiwalat pa niya, "They did not provide my any food at all. I requested them multiple times."
At gustuhin man daw niyang magluto, aniya: "There’s no pots and pans in the house.
"I can cook, like, I could maybe go and grocery shop and then cook for myself, but there were no pots and pans. There was nothing...
"I am vegetarian, so it’s very simple, like, we could just make sure that the fridge is stock with fruits, so I can cut it and eat it...
"I had to order food on Grab. I had to order food every single day."
BODY SHAMING
Bukod dito, parati raw pinapansin ang kanyang weight.
"What am I supposed to say to that? They don't know if I'm frankly alive or dead until we meet on the red carpet and smile for the cameras together.
"I was constantly harassed, manipulated, ignored, and left to fend for myself.
"They only care about making their money, and they didn't pay me at all after that.
"Ang after that, he just come to me and strated pinching me in different places, and he’s like, ‘You need to lose weight here. You need to lose weight here.’
“What am I supposed to say with that? It’s so embarrassing and makes you feel so small and so bad."
"DIFFICULT SITUATION"
Kaya dumating daw sa puntong hindi siya nag-a-update sa Instagram.
Sa simula, ang nirarason niya ay hindi siya gaanong marunong na mag-social media. Pero ang totoong dahilan daw niya ay wala kasi siyang mai-post.
“Everybody’s asking me, why aren’t you posting anything, Rachel? Why are there no updates from you?
“And I would say, 'Oh, I am really bad at it.
"I’m sorry, but the truth is, what should I post?
"I am sitting here in the house, like, there’s nobody to take pictures of me.
"There’s nothing to do. I am just sitting here. I’m depressed and there’s nothing to do. It was really really a difficult situation.
"I love Thailand. I love my Thai fans.
"But being there was so difficult for me. To smile and pretend everything’s okay, like we’re bestfriends, and Papa Nawat, Mama Teresa, and me, we’re just one happy family?"
PRIZE MONEY AND STIPEND
Ang masaklap, ayon pa kay Rachel, makukuha niya ang prize money after ng kanyang reign.
Tinatayang $40,000 o PHP2.2 million ang prize, ayon sa ilang reports.
Sa pagpapatuloy ni Rachel: "I expected after I won that I’d be able to support myself financially with the prize money and everything.
"It’s just like a dream come true and, obviously, you don’t try and win for the prize money, but, it like adds to it. You won something really big.
"It’s only after I won that I realized, like their contract says that the prize money will be paid like in its entirety, at the end of your reign.
"And before that, there’s only like a monthly stipend of a small amount."
Pero ayon kay, Rachel, isang beses lang daw siyang nabigyan kaya may mga pagkakataong nanghihingi siya ng pera mula sa mga magulang niya sa India.
"I was paid my monthly stipend for just the first month, just for the month of November 2024, and they didn’t pay me at all after that.
"And it’s so embarrassing every time I had to go there, and I would ask my parents, I would ask them to give me money for food because I had to take care of that myself."
"THEY DON'T CARE"
Ilang beses daw niyang ipinaabot ang kanyang mga reklamo.
"I am not their contestant anymore. I am their queen.
"And it’s their job to take care of me and make sure I am safe and my things are safe."
Pero ang nangyari, ayon kay Rachel, Teresa Chaivisut "fully blamed me."
Dagdag niya, "And she said, ‘If you go to the police, there’s no way you could prove it anyways.’
“And I was like, I’m not thinking of going to the police. I just want you to try and find out if anything can be done, but she just wanted to blame me."
Habang umiiyak, dugtong niya,
“They don’t care if I live or die. As long as I am there to smile at their events, as long as I keep my body like super slim the way they like, they don’t care if I live or die.”
MGI ACTIVITIES
Dismayado rin si Rachel sa ilang activities na pinagawa sa kanya during her short reign.
Ang dami raw niyang gustong gawin na related sa kanyang advocacies, pero ang claim ni Rachel, kung hindi raw kikita ang MGI, hindi siya papayagan.
"They just want me to be there, to go on TikTok live and make money for them, and show up at their events, that’s it. That’s all they want for me."
Sa kanyang bansa, si Rachel ay isang actress, model, at entrepreneur, pero nagmistulang saleslady raw siya ng mga produktong "cheap" ang kalidad.
"They make us sell these cheap tacky products on TikTok, like, we were sales girls.
"I mean you crowned queens, girls. Like, we have careers in our country. We do things, we’re well-respected, and you’re making us sell cheap products on TikTok because it makes them money.
"And you can’t say no coz the boss is asking you to do it.
"But I used to feel so guilty. People are spending their hard-earned money to buy these disgusting cheap products."
Kinuestiyon niya ang saysay ng kanyang pagkapanalo sa pageant. Dahil lang ba para magbenta ng "chili paste, chili sauce, and some random products?"
Diin niya: "Where is the work, where is the advocacy work for that?
"I am here, I’m ready to use my voice. I am ready to work with an NGO, but they don’t want to do that because it doesn’t make money for them.
“I had plans when I was there. I wanted to go to charities, I wanted to visit a blind orphanage and slum areas that I had worked in before, and they didn’t let me.
“They said we don’t have production team. They made up reasons.
"Obviously, they didn’t want to be because it’s not paid."
DETHRONEMENT
Kapag hindi siya sumunod, tini-threaten daw siyang idi-dethrone.
"When they gave the contract, it was like gun to the head. It was their pen, their paper, their office, their contract, their rules, and we were expected to sit down, shut up and sign it. That’s it.
"They just want girls to feel lucky that you’ve been chosen by us and you just sign it.
"I had been queen for less than two months, the first time they threatened to dethrone me.
"And they just used this thing of dethronement, of taking the crown away, as blackmail.
"And they used it to manipulate me for everything.
"I had to let go of so many opportunities, big interviews. I had to let go a lot of really really big opportunities simply because I wasn’t allowed to take them.”
PASSPORT ISSUE
Kabilang sa perks ng reign niya ang travels. Usually kasi, iniimbitahan ang queen bilang judge o guest sa MGI pageant staging ng mga participating countries.
Pero bihirang bumiyahe si Rachel dahil ang claim ng MGI ay may passport and visa issues siya.
Pinabulaanan ito ng Indian beauty queen.
"I have been queen for seven months, and I have traveled to one country, just one, that’s the Czech Republic. That’s it.
“A couple of months ago, he [Nawat] said that ‘Rachel’s not travelling because she has issues with her passport and she’s applying for lots of visas.'
"That’s not true. I understand that India’s passport might not be the strongest in the world, so it’s easy to blame.
"But me, personally, I have ten year-visas for the U.S., U.K., Canada—which basically grants me access to almost everywhere in the world.
"And I applied for my Schengen visa the day they told me. I applied and I got my Schengen visa for three months within six days.
“So that’s not the reason why I wasn’t travelling for many months is because I was struggling with my passport. It’s because there were not travel opportunities for me.”
May kuwento rin si Rachel tungkol sa treatment ng isang MGI boss sa isang empleyado.
"I remember the day after the event, Teresa, me, and the national director, we were together, and she [Teresa] started yelling at the national director, telling her that she had a bad show and that she picked the wrong winner and lots of issues.
“She went on for an hour, yelling at this woman. This woman who ‘s a grown woman, running her company, lending her life, doing her best, who got so many sponsors, who did such an amazing job, and she yelled at her until she cried.
“And I realized in that moment, if Teresa can yell at this woman like this, what am I for her? I am nothing."
ON LEAVING MGI
Ngayong nagbitiw na siya, malayang-malaya na ang pakiramdam niya.
“I feel free for the first time in months. I feel free and I feel like...I’ve just been just drowning for so long, and now, I feel like I come up for air and I have my life back and I am so grateful for that.
"And no matter what happens, I hope that I have at least helped one or two people by sharing these and be honest with you today.
"And I just wanna say I am really grateful. Thank you so much for your love and support. I love you so much.”
As of 11:58 A.M., wala pang sagot ang MGI tungkol sa mga rebelasyon ni Rachel.
So far, matapos ianunsiyo ng dalaga na siya ay nag-"step down," ang opisyal na anunsiyo ng MGI ay "termination" ang nangyari dahil diumano sa "failure" ni Rachel "to fulfill her assigned duties, engagement in external projects without prior approval from the organization" at dahil din daw sa "refusal" niyang magpunta sa Guatemala.
Wala pa ring official announcement tungkol sa magiging kapalit ni Rachel, pero inaasahang ibibigay ang korona at titulong Miss Grand International 2024 sa pambato ng Pilipinas at first runner-up na si Christine Juliane "CJ” Opiaza.