DEC 16 KILLERS’ PLEAS DESIGN TO FRUSTRATE LAW: SG IN DELHI HC
Reviled by people for their rudeness, auto drivers are assiduously courted by political parties before polls. A story of how and when they drove into the city’s political arena
NEWDELHI: Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Delhi High Court at a special hearing on Sunday that there is a deliberate, calculated and well-thought-out design by the 2012 Delhi gang rape and murder case convicts to “frustrate mandate of law” by getting their execution delayed.
Justice Suresh Kait, after hearing lengthy arguments from both the Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) and those who represented the convicts, reserved his order. The Centre has sought the setting aside of a trial court order staying the execution of four convicts till further orders.
Appearing for the Centre, solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta, additional solicitor generals Maninder Acharya and KM Natraj, along with advocate Amit Mahajan, told the court that the convicts whose mercy pleas have been rejected by the President can be hanged, and all of them need not to be hanged together.
nNEW DELHI: Shiv Kumar Pandey, 56, an auto driver, who lives in south Delhi’s Sangam Vihar, says that in the past few days he has had to twice remove large stickers put on the back of his vehicle by supporters of different political parties.
“I requested them not to do so, but they did not listen; everyone feels that we are a good source of free advertising,” says Pandey, who hails from Gonda district in Uttar Pradesh, and has been driving an auto in the city since 1991. “Political parties have always taken us for a ride,” he adds.
A total of 1,918 autorickshaw drivers were prosecuted between January 6 and January 31 for violating the model code of conduct which came into force with the announcement for the Delhi elections. One of them was fined ₹10,000, for carrying ‘I love Kejriwal’ message.
Reviled by people for refusing routes and overcharging, the city’s auto drivers have, over the years, been assiduously courted by political parties before the elections. Last year, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government announced a slew of measures including an 18.75 % hike in auto fares, waived the vehicle’s fitness test fee and significantly scaleddown various charges.
Even Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Manoj Tiwari has been zealously courting auto drivers in the past couple of years — earlier this month he arrived at a press conference in an auto-rickshaw; besides, he was seen distributing anti-pollution masks to auto drivers.
DRIVING INTO THE POLITICAL ARENA
There are about 100,000 autodrivers in the city – but they are more than just a vote bank. In the past decade, they have actively canvassed for political parties, have taken part in rallies and meetings. While AAP used autos extensively during its campaign in 2013 and 2015, other parties have also run anti-aap messaging on autos.
The leaders of the auto drivers unions — there are about two dozen of them, all affiliated with one or other political party — will have you believe that their role in driving election campaigns has been “under appreciated”.
“We are not merely a source of cheap and effective advertising, but also of valuable information for political parties. During the Lok Sabha elections last year, our union had deployed about 10,000 autos to read the mood of the voters in parts of Delhi, especially in east Delhi,” says Rajendra Soni, general secretary, Delhi Auto Rickshaw Sangh, which has ties with Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, an Rss-affiliate trade union. “Our drivers engage their passengers in conversation to understand who they are going to support or oppose and why, helping the political party we support devise its pool strategy.”
Soni talks boastfully about his ability to “tip the scales in favour of any political party”.
“It was auto drivers who played a key role in AAP’S victory in 2015, rising above their political affiliations. They travel to every nook and corner of the city, interacting with people from varied age-groups and backgrounds. No one knows the political pulse of the city better than us,” says Soni, 62, claiming that his organisation has about 20,000 auto drivers under its umbrella. But has he ever been an auto driver? “I used to drive a taxi in 1990s,” he says.
A SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP
Kishan Verma, president, All Delhi Auto Taxi Transport Congress Union, who claims to be associated with the Congress party, makes no bones about why auto unions’ are affiliated with one political party or other. “It is a give and take relationship. They use us for free publicity, mobilising people and bringing them to rallies in autos. In return we expect the party we support to resolve our issues if it comes to power,” says Verma.
Verma, who claims to have the support of about 15,000 auto drivers, admits that with the Congress having been out of power in the state, his union’s influence has diminished considerably. But that is hardly a cause for concern for him. “We rise above party politics when it comes to the interests of auto drivers.”
Agrees Mohammad Sakhawat Mansoori, general secretary, Rashtriya Rajdhani Kshetra Tipahiya Chalak Union Delhi. “We are a Communist Party of India (CPI)- affiliate organisation. We often meet at each other’s offices, where the interests of the auto drivers, not ideological issues, are discussed,” says Mansoori. His union, he claims, has the support of over 5000 auto drivers.
THE RISING INFLUENCE
Chunni Lal, 68, who drove an auto from 1980 to 2015 in the city and is now secretary of Taxi Auto Rickshaw Driver Sangharsh Samiti, says that auto drivers did not always have to curry favour with political parties. “In 1980, when I started, there were only 6,500 auto-rickshaws in Delhi, and those days we never had to go on strike. Every time there was a hike in fuel prices, the fares were reasonably revised and the new rates were published in the newspapers. Once I was part of our union leaders’ meeting with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at her residence, and she was very receptive to our demands,” says Lal.
He points out that auto drivers became politically important by late 2000 as their numbers increased--a majority of them migrants from Bihar and UP. “Until the mid-1990s most auto drivers were Punjabis, living in west Delhi areas such as Patel Nagar, Tilak Nagar, and Rajouri Garden. Now most live in east Delhi colonies such as Seelam Pur and Shahdara. Seventy per cent of them drive rented vehicles,” says Lal. “In the 1980s, we would make ₹40 a day and were happy, we never refused a ride, and never overcharged. I admit, now a lot of them are dishonest and rude.”
FROM PHAT- PHAT TO AUTOS
Phat-phat, modelled from Harley Davidson’s WLA motorcycles, was the precursor to autos in Delhi. It was the ingenuity — “Jugaad” — of a Delhi businessman who modified Harley Davidson, mass-produced during the Second World War, into a goods vehicle.
“My father’s elder brother
Sham Sundra had imported Harley Davidson motorcycles in 1946, and they were not selling. He modified one of them into a threewheel goods carrier for his own business. On cue, many people bought Harley Davidson motorcycles, and converted them into passenger vehicles that could ferry as many as eight passengers. It came to be called Phatphat because of the thumping sound of its engine,” says Satish Sundra , who runs Ram Chander & Sons, the country’s oldest toyshop in Connaught Place.
Phat- phat, Sundra says, was an instant hit; used mainly for travelling between Regal to Old Delhi railway station in those days when public transport in Delhi was scarce, with most Delhiites depending on Great Northern Indian Transport buses, whose numbers were not enough to meet the demand of the city’s rising population. While the first autos — mostly API Lambretta — arrived in the city in the 1980s, becoming an instant hit because they provided point-to-point transport across the city at low fares, Phat- Phat remained on the roads till late 1990s, plying mostly in Daryaganj. “Phat-phats were not used for advertisements or political campaigning. There were no unions in those early days of the alternative transport system,” says Sundra.
Autos faced an existential threat when, in 2010, then chief minister Sheila Dikshit announced in the state assembly that her government wanted to phase out auto-rickshaws from the capital. “Auto-rickshaws are not a good option — they are uncomfortable and pollute the environment. Also, auto-rickshaw drivers are unruly and harass passengers,” Dikshit said. There was a hue and cry from the auto unions and opposition BJP. The chief minister soon retracted her statement.
THE WHEELS OF CONTROVERSY
During the 2013 assembly elections, the city saw a bitter fight between the Congress and AAP over advertisements on the back of three-wheelers, with Nyay Bhoomi, an NGO, which claimed to be working with 10,000 autorickshaw drivers extending its support to the AAP.
Auto drivers say that though they listen to their union leaders, they make their own choices while voting. Most claim to have supported AAP in both 2013 and 2015.
While the AAP government, they say, has resolved many of their issues, it has failed to rein in app-based services, and has not set up the promised welfare board for drivers.“we had already lost business to Ola and Uber, and now free bus rides for women have further dented our business, with my earning coming down from ₹900 to ₹600 a day, ” says Ramesh Kumar, an auto driver in Mayur Vihar.
Admitting that autorickshaw drivers have been an integral part of the AAP’S campaign for years now, the party’s Delhi convener Gopal Rai, said: “The AAP government has worked for the welfare of auto-rickshaw drivers - from fare rate revisions to significantly slashing down annual charges on updating meters and GPS facility, among other things. Autorickshaw drivers reciprocated with support and around 15,000 of them across the city voluntarily joined the I Love Kejriwal campaign last year. Still, if there are complaints, we assure auto-rickshaw drivers that we will resolve all issues in the days to come.”
But the city’s auto drivers, much- sought- after by political parties, are keeping their cards close to their chest as they claim ‘betrayal’ by all political parties.
› It is a give and take relationship. They use us for free publicity, mobilising people and bringing them to rallies in autos. In return, we expect the party we support to resolve our issues if it comes to power. KISHAN VERMA, president, All Delhi Auto Taxi Transport Congress Union