)
One October morning, around two months before last year's Delhi assembly elections, Arvind Kejriwal had stepped out of the Pragati Maidan Metro station to be greeted by an enthusiastic group of autorickshaw drivers. The driver who ferried him from the station to the Aam Aadmi leader's rendezvous at the Delhi zoo even refused to charge a fare, saying that he owed it to Kejriwal for taking up the cause of auto wallahs in the capital. Six months later, long after Kejriwal had formed the government and given it up, another auto driver slapped him in Sultanpuri, this time when he is campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections. The scene was played over and over again on national television. The following day, Kejriwal visited Laali at his home and announced to the gaggle of news reporters that the driver had apologised to him.
Through the narrow, dusty lanes of Prem Nagar in north-west Delhi's Kirari village, Laali is still at home at noon. While approaching his home, residents see the camera in my hand and ask if I am looking for Laali - without doubt, the auto driver is now a neighbourhood celebrity. When you meet him, Kejriwal is the last subject he wants to talk about. Laali rambles on about how he inherited his intelligence from his ancestors, but being a "good soul", he was too naive to make it big in this "ugly world". Every time I bring up Kejriwal, he dodges the question, showing me instead the scratch marks on his arms that he says his bickering wife inflicted on him.
After constant goading, he finally opens up about the very public slap. "Main maanta hun mujhse galati ho gayi - thappad nahi maarna chahiye tha (I agree I made a mistake - I shouldn't have slapped Kejriwal)." But is he still angry and disappointed with AAP? "For Kejriwal's 14 questions, I can give him 1,500. He could have appointed anyone, even his wife, to run the Delhi government and contest for prime minister himself. But he chose to jettison our concerns," he says. Unlike a couple of months ago when his political preference was clear, he now seems confused. When I ask him which party he voted for in the Lok Sabha elections, he smiles. "All parties are my enemies right now," he says. "I don't want to be beaten up because I told them who I voted for." He lets slip, however, that he sees himself as Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, a figure that the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP often refers to in its campaigns.
More From This Section
Many disillusioned AAP supporters are turning to the flavour of the month: BJP and Narendra Modi. Praveen in East Delhi's Karkardooma insists that it is Modi and BJP alone that can take the nation forward. An ex-employee of a media house, he took to driving autos in October 2013 and voted for AAP in the December elections. When I ask him if I could photograph him, he smiles and hums BJP election campaign jingle, "Ache din aane waale hain".
Most of the auto drivers, however, are not ready to give up just yet. When photo journalist Sanjay Sharma visited the Pragati Maidan Metro station to shoot some pictures, several drivers admitted that even if they ostensibly supported other political parties now, at heart their allegiance was still to AAP. Arun, who has been plying an auto only for the past four months, voted for Kejriwal in the Delhi elections. "AAP quit because of the Jan Lokpal Bill. I have full faith that if he comes to power, he will eradicate corruption and better our lives," he says. Riyasat Ali in Malviya Nagar believes that it is only AAP that can bring about a positive change, though he too wishes that Kejriwal had proved himself in Delhi first. He also defends AAP leader Somnath Bharti's crusade against African residents of the locality. "For the 49 days that Kejriwal was in power, the incidence of police harassment against us had come down several notches. Unfortunately, the change he brought about has been undone," he says.
Police harassment is perhaps the most prominent issue that auto drivers face - something they hoped Kejriwal would address. "If we jump a traffic signal, instead of fining us the usual Rs 100, the cops impound our autos till we pay the money they ask for," says Ali. Rakesh Aggarwal of NGO Nyayabhoomi says that such coercive police action is indeed the bane of an autowallah's life.
The drivers are also caught in a cleft stick regarding parking. There aren't sufficient auto stands in the city. From January 1 to April 15 this year, 40,000 autos have been fined for illegal parking. According to Additional Commissioner of Police Anil Shukla, permit violations constitute another major headache - nearly 6,200 drivers were caught in less than four months. Ali says that to get a legitimate permit, one has to have cleared at least Class VIII. This stipulation has given rise to a booming business for brokers. "I have paid Rs 14,000 to get my licence, but there's still no sign of it," he rues.
With a sympathetic chief minister, perhaps the problems faced by passengers would also have diminished. Aggarwal attributes misbehaviour by drivers to a lack of training. "A proper training module, preferably with refresher courses every six months, can help these drivers understand what their passengers need," says Aggarwal. Simon Harding, a PhD student at the University of British Columbia who has conducted research on autos in Delhi, says that the refusal to pick passengers on unviable routes is a consequence of low fares. "Nearly half the drivers' income is drained by overheads, especially since the tariff structure isn't adjusted to inflation annually, as is the norm worldwide," he adds.
The recent entry of unregulated e-rickshaws isn't helping either. They run on the same routes as autos, carry more passengers than mandated and charge fares that are about one-third. Arun picks up a Hindi newspaper and points to the news item that says an auto union is seeking strict action towards regulating the number of passengers an e-rickshaw can ferry.
These were the core issues that Kejriwal had attempted to tackle while in power. He admitted that auto drivers misbehaved with passengers, and chastised them for it before the elections, promising to look into their problems. The optimistic drivers had all flaunted AAP posters on the rear of their vehicles. But Kejriwal did not stay the course, and his image as a messiah has suffered. Now caught between a Modi 'wave' and the aam aadmi agenda, the autorickshaw community seems split.
Late in the evening, an auto driver agrees to take me to my destination. He asks me, "Raasta maalum hai na aapko (You know the way forward, don't you)?" This must be a question they are asking of Kejriwal too.
