Who is Responsible for the Death of Mohit Yadav?

This is the state of India where an entire state apparatus becomes Hindu for the Kanwariyas and any dereliction of duty by the police officials might cost them their job.

Then again, in Maharashtra, a railway police constable kills four innocent persons including his boss and three Muslim passengers yet nothing much has happened to him so far except the usual stories of being in a ‘disturbed’ state of mind’. We don’t hear much from the police which is otherwise very active, espeif the crime had been committed by a Muslim or a Dalit-Adivasi.

The third incident that recently hit the news was from Saharanpur, also in UP, where Tripta Tygai, a teacher of Neha Public School encouraged her students to hit, for an hour,  an eight year old Muslim student just because he was unable to do some work or memorise what was asked of him.

The teacher has been enjoying wide media publicity— even giving multiple interviews to the media—while the UP police has filed cases against Mohammad Zubair, a multi-media journalist with Alt News who projected the criminal act of Tripta Tygai. In a similar case like this from Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim teacher was immediately arrested for beating up a boy for writing ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on the school classroom board with chalk.

Now, yet another story has “broken” from Uttar Pradesh which is really painful and must surely make us ponder. Where are we heading? What has happened to this country and our society? Have we become sadistic in our hatred towards Muslims?

Mohit Yadav, a 32 year old man, father of a child, a bus conductor with Uttar Pradesh State Transport Corporation Bus paid a price for being a sensitive man and respecting the religious feelings of his fellow countrymen.

The fault of Mohit Yadav was only that he stopped the bus for two Muslim passengers who wanted the bus break to offer Namaz for a couple of minutes. Mohit said that the bus was empty in the beginning and when the two passengers boarded they had made a request. He said that after the bus started for an hour or so, some people asked him to stop for to go to the loo. It is then he thought of/remembered that the same stop in the journet could be used for both purposes: some passengers could go to the toilet for and at the same point of time these two Muslim passengers could offer Namaz nearby.

He then asked the driver to stop the bus asking passengers. Mohit Yadav told one set of passengers that they could take a toilet break. He then asked the Muslim passengers that they could offer Namaz during this period. Suddenly, the other passengers started questioning the motive of stopping the bus for Namaz. Mohit tried explaining. To no avail. Another passenger complained against Mohit’s behaviour, stopped the bus mid way and the UP Roadways, without giving him any opportunity to explain, or even issue a show cause notice, suspended him.

Mohit was appointed on a contract basis so he ‘naturally’ did not have any right to challenge this arbitrary action. He was getting around Rs 17000 per month and was the only bread winner of his family. He became depressed and perhaps, after no other job opportunity, jobless, he committed took his own life. This is not a suicide but a killing by state callousness, apathy and abetment to suicide.

 The same state which failed to act against the criminal acts of Tripta Tyagi acted extremely promptly against Mohit Yadav.

Why are people not shedding tears for Mohit? Did he not deserve a fair listening?

Have we not seen how people shout slogans, stop buses, shouting Jai shri Ram on flights and in our trains?

Mohit paid a price for respecting the religious feeling of two Muslim passengers. Was it a crime to do so?

I have, by now, seen several videos of his interview and the way the local ‘media’ was asking him questions about Muslims and why were they offering Namaz as if doing so is a crime, is not just extremely disturbing but shocking.

A look at the the responses on the suicide of Mohit at the Times of India website will show how shameless and insensitive have we become and the absolute polarisation has reduced us to nothing but hate-mongering robots who have been left with no humanity. These are also poor comments on the moral compass of the media and its commitment to constitutional values – and this includes the editors of the web page of The Times of India.

All, we seem to be now taught is to twist facts according to our conveniences. The same passengers would or could have asked the driver to ‘respect’ the sentiments of the people. The media could have portrayed the sorry tragedy asking the right questions, showing up the UP state’s action for what it is, illegal and criminal. But no. Now a weaponised state has devised that the stopping of a bus for two minutes so that some people can offer prayer has become ‘criminal’ and ‘appeasement’. All this, when we still see that weapon-wielding Kanwariyas have become new India’s “freedom fighters”,  enjoying facilities from the state, more significant than those fighting at our borders.

This incident took place on June 3 and the bus was going from Bareilly to Kaushambi, near Delhi. The UPSRTC immediately acted on the complaint of the passenger and suspended Mohit Yadav from the services. He became jobless and thought that the department would keep him on but the absolutely department, functioning with no accountability and under a majoritarianism diktat, just did not consider keeping him in the job again.

We know UP roadways buses and how they function and how the driver and conductors can stop the buses anywhere at any time. Those who travel by these buses know these condition and the so-called discipline that governs them. You can’t even trust that the service will take you to any place on time. The conditions of the buses are known to all yet a decision of the conductor and driver in good faith to respect the faith of two Muslim passengers was considered so bad that they were removed from their jobs.

On August 26, Mohit committed suicide by jumping in front of a train and his mutilated body was recovered.

Today, you do not expect any response for any Minister, officer, head of the government because under the new regime, ministers and netas only speak about ‘success’ or ‘positive’ stories but never ever speak to any person when they are in need or where their government or department is seen as being insensitive.

 Gone are the days when the people would question the wrongs of the government and sympathise but today it is  not so. Even in death, it is the falsehoods that are labelled the ‘truth’. So we are all today virtually blaming Mohit.

There is another dark reality here which we must understand. Mohit was employed on a contract basis so it was easy to dismiss him or suspend him as the state then has no responsibility and there is no trade union, no Bahujan, no political party speaking for him.

 If he were a regular employee of the UPSRTC, it would have been difficult to dismiss him and the disciplinary process should have taken a lot of time and through the due process of law but a contract or daily wage worker can be dismissed or removed any time at the whims and fancies of ‘officers’ who our young now ‘aspire’ to become.

Anyway, the question is simple. Who is responsible for the death of Mohit Yadav? Is stopping a bus for two minutes a crime? Do the drivers stop buses or not on the roads? Nobody is denying that there should be rules for it but in this case, the fact is,that those who complained against him and those who acted suffered from a deeply communal mindset. One hopes their children will not have to suffer if they are living as a minority in another country.

We, that is India, is in a serious crisis and the action against Mohit Yadav only proves that we are warned not to speak, show or act in any good will towards the fellow citizens of the country who happen to be Muslims,  because our rulers and their blind bhakt mandali do not like it.

Be warned, showing any sympathy towards fellow Muslims of the country could be termed hurting the sentiments of the Hindus or ‘appeasement’ of Muslims.

 Will our courts speak up at all on such critical issues ?