| The News Minute | December 9, 2014 | 02.59 pm IST
On Monday, the Delhi government banned all application-based taxi services in the capital in light of the reported rape on November 5. Only six cab companies with a licence to operate in Delhi have been retained and allowed to continue services.
On Friday, a 27 year old woman was allegedly raped by an Uber cab driver, Shiv Kumar Yadav, who had a history of sexual crime. The driver was then arrested and is being prosecuted amidst an outpouring of horror in the media with justified criticism directed at Uber.
The Delhi Commission for Women Chairperson Barkha Singh on Sunday held the cab company responsible and called for its ban. "The cab company in question should be banned, gender sensitisation should be taught. I came to the police station to see what is being done about the case, the girl is traumatised," she said.
Uber operates out of 45 countries and the $41.2 billion worth San Francisco based enterprise has a history of litigation across countries and will not hesitate in spending that money for lawyer fees.
Banning all cab services in the state though, looks like an overreaction with over 20 cab services being halted in the capital. Close to 3000 drivers registered with Uber also stand to lose their jobs.
Uber’s policies clearly absolve the company of any wrong doings done on part of its drivers. This and the false illusion of security that GPS fitted in such cabs provide customers have been proved wrong.
Why Uber has been banned is because they have been “misleading customers”, according to Special Commissioner of Delhi Transport Department, Satish Mathur, to the ET. “Uber has been by offering them Taxis with All-India permits that cannot ply in Delhi from point-to-point ferrying customers”, he added.
According to him, the rape survivor too was provided with an All India Permit Taxis which by law is not allowed to ferry customers’ point-to-point in the capital.
The Delhi police also have had to deal with criticism directed their way after a “fake” certificate of a clean criminal record from them found its way to the accused. The certificate was enough of a background check for Uber to hire him.
The question remains: Who has come out with anything from the episode?
The Delhi Police have been deferring blame and have called the certificate as a fake while the government has just decided to go all out by banning an entire market segment of taxis.
For a long time we have continued to look past criminal records, past and present. In the Lok Sabha elections, 34 per cent of the new MPs faced criminal charges, according to data from the Association for Democratic Reforms. Fifty six out of 289 candidates in the fray today during the third leg of the Jharkhand polls have serious criminal charges against them.
Union Minister Nihalchand Meghwal was earlier accused for the rape of a woman in Jaipur. Pronounced ‘missing’ by the Rajasthan government, he has resurfaced in New Delhi after taking charge of a new department, reported NDTV. He was shifted from Chemicals and Fertilisers to the Panchayati Raj section, however, he has not been removed. The reason mainly, that the police have not named him as suspect in the case.
There is no rule for preventing ex-offenders from employment, or preventing them from employment. However, the arguments seem to indicate that Uber here is at fault for first not identifying the cab driver’s alleged criminal history, and secondly for providing him employment despite that.
The questions have been endless.
We need to know how Uber plans to ensure safe and responsible drivers.
We need to know whether Uber is actually tracking the cabs it sends out.
We need the Delhi Police to keep track of all cabs in the city and make sure nothing is happening inside the cab.
We need to worry that the man had a history in sexual assault.
Yes , we need to .
But like it was said in the beginning the rape rhetoric is a circle. There is no end point for the blame.
Uber may, according to its policies, have washed its hands off this incident but is it the company’s fault?