One Year ago
On February 1, Ankit Saxena was killed. The same Ankit Saxena who fell another prey to the divisions in the caste in our society. At the age of 23, Ankit had everything a normal middle-class boy possessed. A decent paying job, loving parents, a roof above his head- and a girlfriend.
Ankit Saxena
Shehzadi and Ankit had known each other since she was in Class 4, and they fell in love when she was in Class 11. They only met up twice in their three-year relationship. However, they would always be on the phone.
As fate has it, there came thorns along the smooth road. Her parents found out about Ankit and disapproved. They beat her up and forced her to marry someone 10 years older. When nothing worked, they declared she would have to move to their village in Saharanpur and get married.
Shehzadi decided to leave home and move away. She called Ankit to meet her at Tagore Garden metro station. He promised to meet, only to never turn up.
Ankit was killed by Shehzadi’s parents and her maternal uncle in broad daylight in Delhi on February 1, 2018.
After the murder, it wasn’t about teenage romance. It was a communal disharmony. Delhi was on the brink of communal riots.
Ankit’s father, Yashpal Saxena, much to everyone’s surprise, did not submit to the violence. He requested both sides to refrain from creating any more disorder or chaos.
Mr Saxena got thanked for his compromise by Delhi Chief Minister and AAP Convenor Arvind Kejriwal, who promised him a compensation of ₹5,00,000, and a lawyer to fight the case of his son.
BJP MP from West Delhi Parvesh Verma lauded him for his decision and promised him a food cart to ear him a living after the death of his son, who was the sole bread earner.
During Eid, he had hosted a Hindu-Muslim Iftaar party to promote peace.
Iftaar party (right) Yashpal Saxena
One Year Later
After the horrific incident that led to the loss of his only child, Yashpal Saxena’s life was in turmoil, to say the least. Numerous visit to the courts and government officials were a part of his routine now.
But he is a 60-year-old man, whom the government had failed. No promises were fulfilled.
A dejected Yashpal now begins to question his decision.
“Am I not being compensated because I did not allow the incident to become communal? I wanted love and harmony to prevail between the two communities. Am I being punished for it?”, Mr Saxena says.
Would the rift between the two communities have resulted in early compensation?” he questions.
In February, the BJP MP did send him a food cart, but without the keys.
In March, he got a phone call informing him that Verma would him the keys to the food cart the next day, in an event attended by the media.
However, few minuted before the event, he got a call that Verma is busy with the elections and had no time.
“You know how it is. He is an MP, a big and powerful man. I’m just a common man, a nobody. I felt nervous,” Saxena told HuffPost India.
If BJP flunked, same went with AAP.
Mr Saxena never received compensation. A minority body in the government wrote to Arvind Kejriwal to increase the compensation to ₹20 lakhs, but to no avail.
In October 2018, the official handle of the Aam Aadmi Party tweeted a copy of a government letter sent to senior advocate Rebecca John, and Vishal Gosain to represent Saxena.
The tweet contained an announcing the appointment of the lawyers. But there was no confirmation. The matter has been lying static.
Mr Saxena filed an RTI to know where the appointment was lost, but the labyrinth of bureaucracy can trap anyone. Nothing came out of it.
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