On 30th July 2021, news of a Lucknow girl beating a taxicab driver at the Awadh signal, stormed twitter with #arrestlucknowgirl trending. The girl, named Priyadarshani Yadav claimed that the driver tried to run her over. The video clip shows the taxi whizzing past her in speed.
Priyadarshani raised the traffic alarm which gathered the cops to stop the cab. Upon this, the girl was seen assaulting cab driver in front of the mob and the authority. The driver, Shahadat Ali insisted that he had no intention to run over anyone.
This needs to be justified now…The girl in this video should be arrested for doing this behaviour infront of @Uppolice @uptrafficpolice #ArrestLucknowGirl pic.twitter.com/vB4suEEStk
— kuldeep singh Tomar 🇮🇳 (@kuldeepsinghto4) August 2, 2021
She called for the women’s police and in all this chaos broke Ali’s cellphone as well. FIR was lodged on Monday once the video became viral amassing attention from the greater public. The details of the FIR are yet to be shared.
The incident has spiralled a divided response from netizens, some siding with the violent actions of the women justifying that her life was at stake, while some argue that the driver was innocent ad should not have been treated this way.
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The video clip has come under intense scrutiny online. Yet the most hotheaded arguments are taking over gender inequality. Netizens who are pro-Lucknow girl make the case that her life could be at risk if the taxi driver had not been able to hit the brakes timely; or that zebra-crossing was made for the purpose of pedestrian safety, a rule that seems to be missing from normalcy for drivers.
Not defending the girl here but the level of support this guy gets isn't acceptable either. Yes, he stopped the car at the right time, but what if he didn't. It's a red signal, look at the way he and others are jumping the signal. He was speeding too. Don't support either. https://t.co/MORiOdh3lU
— Rajeesh Nair 🇮🇳 (@cricketrajeesh) August 2, 2021
While others scrutinise that Lucknow girl was at fault for crossing the road when the cars were speeding, saying that the signal was green; Meanwhile some take an objective stance understanding her defenses were triggered but that gave her no right to publicly humiliate a person and on top of that assault them while the relevant authority was present.
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In such incidents, ‘feminism’ finds itself mired or alleged to be defending ‘insolent’ women and suppressing the men. The structural issue lies at following traffic rules that secure the safety of the pedestrians as well as the drivers. Shifting the focus of the root cause of the incident is likely to create more buzz than clarity.