Rau’s IAS  Basement Tragedy; A Blood-Soaked Report Card of India’s Failed System. MCD Is a Silent Killer, Watching Students Die in Its Illegal Dungeons. Is India The World’s Largest Democracy Or A Monarchy Of Death For Its Aspiring Youth?

What is the value of life in India? An ordinary person can die at any time.

A car worth three crores can crush you in Pune driven by a drunk teenager.

A mega hoarding can fall in Mumbai, and you can die. 

All the permits are illegal.

You can die in a gaming zone in Rajkot.

They don’t have proper fire permits, or a person can drown himself in the basement of a coaching centre institute in Delhi. Basement in which classes or libraries are not allowed. 

Last Saturday, 3 UPSC aspirants died in Old Rajendra Nagar when the basement of the Rau IAS study circle was flooded due to heavy rain. Shreya Yadav from Uttar Pradesh, Nivin Dalwin from Kerala, and Tanya Soni from Telangana all three lost their lives due to the negligence of the government and civic authorities. 

Was it just an accident or murder due to negligence?

The police are now trying to show that they have come into action and are trying to catch the guilty. On the other hand, the BJP and AAP started their politics. Many groups are trying to give political colour to this incident. But the fact is that AAP controlled MCD, it neither cleaned the roadside drains nor stopped the illegal commercial activity in the basement of Rau’s IAS basement nor did they clean the stormwater drains that can handle water. The result was that the water went to the basement quickly, and lives were lost.

On the other hand, AAP says that they do not have power. Officers do not listen to them. They gave orders to clear the drains, but the order was ignored. There is no chain of accountability. There is a power tussle between the Chief Minister and LG in Delhi, so no officer listens. 

An AAP leader stated, 

“I am interviewing the shopkeepers; that was this work done? They said no, not at all. And nothing was done. And I sent this complaint to you directly. You didn’t even respond to it.”

Today, Atishi Marlena also tweeted and tried to prove that bureaucrats do not listen to them despite giving orders. But BJP says that this whole story shows that the failure of the AAP party is now clearly visible to people; still, two and a half feet of water is on the road. The entire water was filled in the basement. The chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, and MLA Durgesh Pathak are responsible for this death.

However, students in this area who understand politics don’t want politics to overshadow this issue. That’s why when Swati Maliwal, angry with AAP and Arvind Kejriwal, went there, many students asked her to leave. Students are especially angry with MCD because the rules have been broken for a long time, and MCD is probably sleeping. 

What is shocking is that a month before this incident, a Rau IAS study circle student had complained to the Delhi govt and said that classrooms were being run illegally in the basement without a No Objection Certificate. The student also accused the senior officer of MCD of knowing about the violation, and despite knowing about it, this was allowed. In their complaint, the student wrote, ‘this is an example of corruption in the MCD. Please take strict action against big UPSC coaching institutes putting student lives at risk by holding un authorised places.’

Did AAP, which emerged from the anti-corruption movement, take any action on MCD?

The same thing happened to what the student had feared in the complaint. The library was in the basement, which was illegal. A biometric system did not work; the drainage system was not cleaned. An iron gate acting like a dam, but failed. Who knows when drains were cleaned in this area? The coaching centers have installed iron gates and plastic sheets to stop the water. An SUV passed, and the gate could not handle the water load, so it collapsed. As a result, water started to enter the basement very fast.

Call it a tragic comedy or something else, but the police have to show that they are completely alert in this matter. So, along with the owner of Rau IAS, its coordinator, and the building owner, they also took the SUV driver under custody for 14 days. The driver was driving in the rain, that was the mistake. Police also contested the driver’s bail and said that he was the cause of the incident. 

Drains were not cleaned, storm water drains were not desilting, encroachments did not stop, and business in the basement did not stop. But the police caught an SUV driver and called them the culprit. Till now, no senior officer of MCD has been arrested. And no moral responsibility has been taken by AAP.  

The police arrested the junior engineer of MCD and suspended the assistant engineer. The government and MCD will say that they took strict action. When students protested against this, demanded to meet the commissioner, demanded adequate compensation for the students, and blocked the way, they were beaten by the police. These aspirants must not have thought two days ago that as aspirants of IAS and IPS, they will get the hospitality of the Indian police.

It is heard that the police beat up some ABVP leaders. Aspirants are running out of patience. It is not just about this one unfortunate incident. It is about an exploitative system, coaching institutions keep aspirants in bad conditions. Not only classes and libraries but also illegally paying guest accommodations are run in the basement. When it rains, the students’ rooms fill with sewage water. There is no emergency exit or ventilation. The incident that took place had to happen sooner or later. And even after complaining to MCD, nothing has changed.

Classrooms are in the basement. They either have an office there or a library. And there are around 500-1000 kids in the class. PG is also in the basement. They are charging 20-25,000 rent for each kid, and students literally suffocate there. But after this incident, the aspirants also understand that the system has become so deaf that no one has time to listen to their voices. 

Students are not even asking to withdraw a bill. Students want the government to assure them that they are taking responsibility. They should assure students that such carelessness will not happen again. Students will not be killed again. That is all. But it is not easy to take such moral responsibility, especially in today’s politics. Because the BJP is after AAP, AAP is after bureaucrats, bureaucrats are looking at the Left Governor, and students are stuck in between. 

Students are not only upset with the system but also with brilliant, intellectual, inspirational people. Those who made IAS coaching relaxed. Somewhere or another, they keep giving their inspirational speech. They keep doing podcasts, they keep on YouTube. But students are asking that when the problem comes to the students, they disappear, and they can’t even stand with them. Until the teachers show up, police will beat the students up. Student anger against teachers was seen on the streets.

After Rau’s Study circle, others were also exposed. Everyone was running illegal classes in the basement. MCD has come into action. Thirteen coaching centers have been sealed. Bulldozer action is shown to the camera.

Encroachments on the drains are being removed. After lives are lost, the system is in full swing. But not before, which students are also saying – today, the police and the administration are present to stop them, stop the protest, control them, and calm them. Still, these deaths wouldn’t have happened if even one-third of them had come before the rain. This murder wouldn’t have happened. 

That’s why the students are saying that this is not an accident. This murder is due to negligence. And nothing is going to come out of the high-level probe of MCD. A few days ago, 26-year-old Nilesh Rai was returning from his PG. It was raining, there was water on the road. Nilesh used an iron gate to avoid the water. The live wire was touching the iron gate. The boy died there. An aspirant dies such a senseless death. NHRC also took notice. But what action will be taken, and what punishment will take place? 

MCD knew that coaching centres were death traps in writing. This very year, in May, the Delhi High Court ordered the closure of a coaching institute that violated fire and safety norms. This is because in June 2023, Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar, a coaching hub, was on fire. Sixty students were injured, but they were saved by jumping out of the scene. But there was no learning from that incident either. It was a clear warning that this could happen again or with any other centre. 

So, even after the complaint of students of Rau IAS, MCD did not take any action. Even after the court order came to MCD to close the coaching centres, no action was taken. MCD did not clean the drains or remove the encroachments. All this is a systematic failure. All this is the result of systematic negligence, because of which three lives were lost. Now, whatever the AAP is saying, the officers do not listen to them. It is their moral responsibility. 

BJP should not play politics on this issue. They have broken the system. They are not clean. Remember the Morbi bridge and Rajkot fire deaths. They are not clean.

The Viewpoint

The question is, who is thinking for students and aspirants beyond politics? Today, the condition of Old Rajinder Nagar is worse. In the meantime, many IAS officers left from there and went to significant positions. But what did they do by going to prominent positions? 

They never thought that they should do something for their workplace. They forgot it. These prominent IAS officers, influential IAS officers, and these IAS officers with lights only think about themselves. No IAS officer, no group, no IAS association thought that let’s fix this place. Are they interested in life and trying to do well in their career?

Who will believe in the country if IAS, MCD, Students, and teachers think for themselves? This thinking that others can go to hell will take the government down.