At New Delhi Railway Station on Saturday. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra New Delhi)
Saib Samrat and Shafiqul Islam, labourers at a plywood shop in Jammu, reached Delhi with two family members in the early hours of Friday from their hometown in Malda, West Bengal. Like on every previous occasion, they hoped to catch a train to Jammu as soon as possible and go back to work. But as violence spread across north India — in the wake of Dera Sacha Sauda’s chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh being convicted of rape — they were told that trains to Jammu had been cancelled. With nowhere to go, they slept at the New Delhi Railway Station platform, oblivious to what caused the delay.
As over 300 trains continued to be cancelled on Saturday, they prepared for another night at the platform. And they weren’t alone. Several commuters travelling to Haryana, Punjab and Jammu — most of them labourers — were left stranded at the station, clueless and confused. The only thing they knew was that the situation was not causing them discomfort, but also affecting their livelihood.
“We heard there was some lafda (problem) in Haryana, but we have no idea what’s happening. Our maalik is telling us to come back fast, but we have no option. The routes are shut, and we are stuck. Yesterday we slept at the platform, and washed up at a toilet. Today again, we’ll have to do the same,” said Samrat, sitting on the floor, with people huddled around him.
Nearby sat Srija Devi, with her husband and two children. They work at Rajpura Mandi and were hoping to reach Ambala. “We booked our ticket from Unchahar (UP). When we heard the train wouldn’t reach, we tried to get it cancelled. But at the ticket counter we were reassured we would reach… and now we are stuck,” she said. “My husband is ill; I don’t know how we’ll manage.”
As announcements were made about trains getting cancelled, Bheem Pradhan, an agricultural labourer in a village near Nakodar, Punjab, said, “I’m just worried that every day I don’t work, I’m losing my wage.”
Just then, Devi’s husband had an epileptic seizure. People urged her to take him to a hospital, but Devi refused. Delhi is an unfamiliar city to her. “Just let us go to Ambala,” she said.
