Rapido driver fired after confronting passengers over casteist slurs

A Rapido driver has claimed he was fired by the ride-hailing platform after a video of him confronting four passengers over alleged casteist slurs went viral on social media, saying he had forced them out of his vehicle because they repeatedly made derogatory remarks about a particular caste.

In the first video, the driver can be heard repeatedly questioning a passenger over his alleged use of the word “Chamar” and asking him to get out of the vehicle. He also threatens to call the police and challenges the passengers over their use of caste-related language.

“You said, ‘What will happen if you make a Chamar man a triple C?’ How could you say that? Who are you to decide whether a Chamar man will become something or whether a Pandit will? Who are you to decide that?”

The driver repeatedly asks the passengers to get out of the vehicle and tells them that he is calling the police. He also asks one of them to show his identity card and name.

“You used a casteist word. How could you use a casteist word? How can you directly refer to someone by their caste? You said ‘Chamar’. How could you say ‘Chamar’?”

The exchange soon becomes heated, with the driver repeatedly challenging the passengers over the alleged remarks and asking them to leave the vehicle.

In a subsequent video posted after the confrontation went viral, the driver said his decision to remove the four passengers was not motivated by any personal, social or religious opposition to them.

“I had no social or caste-based opposition to the four people I removed from my vehicle. I did not know the caste, community or religion of any of them. I knew nothing about them.”

He said the passengers had repeatedly made derogatory remarks targeting a particular caste and that he had warned them several times because he belonged to that caste and community.

“They were repeatedly using abusive words against a particular caste. I stopped them several times during the journey because I belong to that caste and community and represent it. But they continued to speak against that caste.”

The driver said he eventually had to ask the passengers to leave his vehicle.

“I was forced to make them get out of my vehicle.”

Driver claims Rapido suspended him for 99 years

The driver identified Rapido as the platform through which he had accepted the ride and claimed the company had suspended him for 99 years and 11 months following the incident.

“The company I was working with and the platform through which I took that ride is Rapido. The result I have faced after this incident is that the company has suspended me for 99 years and 11 months.”

He said he was upset that the company had not sought his version of events before taking action against him.

“I am only hurt that the company could at least have asked me for my side of the story. After that, it could have suspended me or not suspended me.”

He added that the company had several reasons it could have cited for suspending him but should have heard his side first.

“They had 50 reasons to suspend me, but they suspended me without giving me a chance to present my side even once.”

The driver also said the passengers had repeatedly targeted a particular caste and that his intervention was prompted by their remarks rather than their individual identities.

The videos do not independently establish the identities of the passengers, the circumstances preceding the confrontation or whether the alleged casteist remarks were made in the manner described by the driver.

The driver ended his clarification by reciting lines from a poem attributed by him to Dr Nawaz, warning that remaining silent when others face injustice could eventually leave others vulnerable themselves.