In a shocking incident, an elderly man was allegedly humiliated and denied a seat in Delhi metro, allegedly for his appearance. The senior citizen approached two young men sitting on the senior citizens’ seat and requested to vacate it but they turned him down. On asking again the young men said that the seats are for “Hindustanis not for Pakistanis like you”. The man was presumed as a Muslim “because he had a beard and no moustache”, a Facebook post describing the post read.
The post is now being widely shared online and has generated a lot of discussion, Hindustan Times reported.
The incident reportedly occurred last week on Delhi’s violet line and was shared on social media by Kavita Krishnan, Secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association. Krishnan added in her post that finally a fellow passenger, Comrade Santosh Roy, intervened and came forward to help the old man. Krishnan introduces Roy as the National Secretary of AICCTU and a long-standing leader of the DTC Workers’ Unity Centre in the post.
According to the post, when Roy asked the racist men to apologise to the man, they denied and also held Roy by his collar and allegedly told him to “Go to Pakistan”.
Finally, the guards came into the compartment when the metro stopped at the Khan Market station and took the unruly men away. A complaint was lodged at the Pandara Road police station where they were taken.
“Two young men kept threatening ‘Hamare log aa rahe hain’ (Our supporters will come). The police offered to escort the elderly Muslim gentleman home, but he went home on his own,” the post added.
After the complaint, in the next few days, Roy got many phone calls saying the younger men wanted to apologise and but Roy turned it down that it’s the old man who deserves the apology.
A few days later, when Roy visited the police station he came to know that the elderly man had decided not to pursue the complaint. “The elderly gentleman had given a written statement that he accepted the apology from the two young men and that he had forgiven them keeping in mind their young age,” Krishnan added.
