Apart from college and varsity campuses, a vociferous fight for rights is often known to surface among commuters, both local and long-distance. A misplaced sense of ownership was displayed by Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad last month when he hit a senior Air India staffer 25 times with his slippers, on being asked to alight from the aircraft in Delhi, as it had to be readied for the next flight.

Although not as violent, but an equally momentous train ride awaited 32-year-old Swapna Kulkarni Ajgaonkar and her husband, Amir, on Sunday, when the couple along with their infant were asked by co-passengers on Deccan Queen to get off the bogie as the sight of a mother breastfeeding an infant "was disturbing" to them.

Punemirror

The Ajgaonkars had an AC chair car ticket from Pune to Mumbai, but since the compartment, they were allocated was full to the brim, the couple stepped into an adjacent sparsely populated reserved pass holders' compartment so that their daughter could be nursed in some comfort.

No sooner had they settled in, than a massive altercation ensued between an elderly pass holder and them, with the TTE throwing his weight behind the regular commuters.

The couple was bullied as they were using an unreserved pass holders' seat for nursing their child.

Punemirror

The reserved coach for passholders in Deccan Queen is sparse on Sunday compared to other weekdays. When Swapna felt uncomfortable feeding her child in the chair car she decided to walk to the next compartment. While the ticket checker ordered her to return to her designated seat, the elderly gent, according to her, found the sight of a mother nursing her child objectionable.

"I could not believe the insensitivity of my copassengers. I was not planning to occupy the seat throughout the journey but just for a little while to feed my child comfortably. When I refuted the elderly man's comments he immediately called the TTE, who was not supportive either. They bullied us for stepping into 'their zone' which I feel is unfair. It did not end there either, as the man started to give us a lecture on the laws that Indian citizens fail to follow," recalled Swapna, considering that if there were a woman ticket checker, she may have been more empathetic. She has since put her ordeal on Facebook, which managed to get many eyeballs. Her husband's intervention did not help either, and he was left taking turns with his wife pacifying their child.

BCCL/Representational Image

Battle between passholders and non-passholders on this route, especially in Deccan Queen are not unheard of. Harsha Shah, president of Railway Pravasi Manch, reiterated that the former are often known to be bullies.

She said, "These passholders feel that they own the train and have never allowed other passengers to sit regardless of any emergency." Reacting to the present incident, she said, "Swapna should have been allowed to sit for at least some time. This was a blatant show of arrogance on the part of the passholder. She was around an empty area and was not occupying anyone else's seat." She recalled how once a woman was forced by passholders to jump off the running train as she had mistakenly stepped into this coach. The passengers eventually beat her up as well.

BCCL/Representational Image

When Pune Mirror spoke to Krishnanath Patil, the senior divisional commercial manager of Pune division, about the incident, he said, "Despite the reservation, fellow passengers should have exercised some sensitivity towards the couple. We are ready to investigate the matter once a complaint is registered." In a similar vein, Pune divisional railway manager B K Dadabhoy said, "We need to get to the bottom of the story and why the lady was told to go out of the coach by the passholders. I will get the details of the incident from my officials and comment thereafter."

Swapna Kulkarni's story is not the first. Passholders in the past have also been reprimanded by the railways for misbehaving with fellow passengers.

This was a blatant show of arrogance on part of the passholders. The mother was in an empty area and not occupying anyone else's seat