Death over public urination shames enraged Delhiites

Beaten to death. Why? For stopping youngsters from urinating on the roadside, near GTB Nagar Metro Station in North Delhi. Was the 32-year-old e-rickshaw driver, Ravinder, at fault for supporting the call for Swachh Bharat?

Delhiites feel sad and say no. But assert that it’s not easy in a city like Delhi. “I once tried to stop a rickshaw wala, who looked drunk, from urinating in public, in the same GTB Metro Station area. But, it turned out to be embarrassing for me. I told him ‘What are you doing?’ and had so many people stare as if I, being a girl and pointing out a man peeing on the road, was the culprit,” recalls Kumkum, a 26-year-old student of Korean language in Delhi University’s North Campus.

Some call the incident of rage that took the 32-year-old’s man’s life, a show of aggression “Delhiites have bulls who’ll stop at nothing. And that feeling has come in because the administration has let it,” says Prateek Dewan, a 28-year-old software engineer.

The concern is shared by others who feel that the culprit is attitude of pinning down those who are from a lower economic strata. “Delhiiites have this attitude ‘tu janta nahi mera baap kaun hai?’ Plus we treat poor people like animals... and when a poor (in this case the rikshawala) guides someone who is better off (in this case the young guys), it hurts their ego and they end up doing such crimes ” says Neha Das

PHOTO: ISTOCK