We are all Yuvraj Mehta

An uncaring, irresponsible system watched him die; it could be any of us

Alok Tiwari

People dying untimely, avoidable deaths has long ceased to be news in India. So, when death of a young software engineer Yuvraj Mehta by drowning in a ditch in Noida continues to make headlines for days, it is worth asking why. There were so many things wrong with it that even a nation that practically lives from tragedy to tragedy was forced to take notice. Yuvraj came driving on a badly designed turn on the road on a cold night and his car plunged into a water-filled ditch that should not have been there. There were no barricades, no warning signs, no lights to warn drivers about the danger.

Worse, Yuvraj was alive and all right enough to call for help as his car slowly went into the water. He called his dad who alerted the police. Different accounts suggest that police, fire brigade personnel, and disaster relief forces of both state and central government reached the spot and were present for one and half to two hours. But none of them had the resources and the will to do anything about it as Yuvraj agonisingly inched towards death. It is reported some did not enter the ditch because they thought the water would be too cold. Some feared construction rods under the water. They knew the ditch was an abandoned construction site and rods from piles would be jutting out.

They did not have life jackets, cranes, boats, and lights that would be effective in dense fog. In the end it was left to a gig worker— yes, that most looked down upon class in modern India— to redeem a bit of humanity. Moninder Jatav got down into the ice-cold water to try and pull Yuvraj out. But in the darkness and with no support, he could not locate the car. Eventually, calls from Yuvraj stopped and everything went silent. This bit of description is necessary to feel the sheer horror of the situation. It is difficult being in the shoes of a young man who would have thought help is at hand. Impossible to imagine the helpless trauma of a father who watched life ebb out of his young son just metres away.

A more vivid, and tragic, example of systemic failure will be difficult to find. All of us know things do not work as designed in the country. All of us are aware of the lurking and obvious dangers that surround us in our everyday existence. Despite all that nobody could have thought a man would die in such a manner in presence of so many personnel whose sole job is to protect people in precisely such situations.

Just think. Police, fire fighters, national and state disaster relief forces are meant to rescue us from things like burning buildings, earthquakes and floods. They are supposed to have the equipment, training, and mindset to do so. They should not have to rely on individual bravery to get people out of trouble. They have the material and human resources for that. That they all found themselves paralysed as Yuvraj’s car went slowly down in the ditch speaks of their preparedness as well as commitment.

Remember this happened not in some remote backward neglected area but in Noida which is part of Uttar Pradesh adjacent to the capital city of Delhi. This region has the highest public capital spend per capita in the country. If agencies here are so ineffective, what people in less cared for parts of the country can expect? What makes the whole episode even worse is the reaction of the government afterwards. Cover up is always worse than the crime. In this case, as details kept emerging, the response of the authorities was not of honest admission of failure or remorse but of damage control.

The police first blamed Yuvraj for driving too fast around the bend. Then Moninder, who had earlier spoken freely to media and recounted how everyone just stood by fearing cold water, was pressured to change his statement to cast the personnel in more favourable light. He was reportedly even asked to disappear for a few days until the news cycle moved on. All that did not work and the UP government was forced to set up a special investigation team to probe the multiple failures around Yuvraj’s death. Even then it tried to brush up its image by having Yuvraj’s father read out a prepared statement that pinned the blame on lower personnel at the site. They made his thank the state government for its response.

Noida and adjoining Delhi are having not just double but triple engine government meaning national, state, and local bodies are all under one party. We are repeatedly told this is supposed to usher in heaven on earth. How come elementary rescue systems are so broken here? This may sound like politicisation of a tragedy. It is not. It is just demanding accountability and safety from politicians who are not shy of politicising our religion to gain power. Letting it go as a one-off incident will only ensure that this tragedy is repeated at another place and in another form.

Neither Hindu nor Muslim is in danger in this land. It is an Indian who is always in danger. In many cases, we citizens are responsible for neglecting our safety. But there are plenty of external things too that can snuff out our lives at no notice. Right from potholes to badly designed roads to ill maintained buses to missing barricades to unmarked pits, anything can end your life any time. Yuvraj being a middle-class young man, his death at least got some attention and may bring some improvement. We would not be doing this had he been a poor construction worker. In the end, though, none of us is safe until we start asking questions that matter.

This column appeared in Lokmat Times on Jan 30, 2026