Hari Om Mishra (30), the driver employed by Union Minister Ajay Mishra Teni, has been all but anointed the villain of the Lakhimpur Kheri incident by media and powerful elites. Ex-Supreme Court Judge Madan Bhimrao Lokur speaking to NDTV (who else?) passed his judgement: “Its a case of murder, The person just drove over these farmers, it’s it’s a simple case of murder. And the first thing that is done in a case of murder is to arrest the person who was accused of the offence”
The judge wasn’t aware, or maybe pretended not to be aware, that Hari Om Mishra’s car had been pelted with stones and attacked with lathis causing him to lose control and drive over protestors. Netizens reminded him that Hari Om Mishra was brutally lynched, so how could he be arrested?
So brutally was Hari Om lynched that his old mother tearfully wishes, “They should have shot him or just choked him instead of beating him to death….at least we would have got the dead body in one piece” The family still gets frightened when they remember the injury marks on his neck and fractured bones when they saw the dead body.
The New Indian, a newly launched digital media platform, is probably the first media outlet to visit Hari Om Mishra’s family at his small 600-square feet home in village Parsera, Lakhimkhur Kheri district.
Their report informs us that Hari Om was the sole breadwinner of his family. He had two younger siblings – Madhuri and Sriram – and was highly aware of his family responsibilities. He refused to marry until he settled his sister and helped his ailing father fight cerebral palsy. The picture that emerges after listening to the grieving family is of a simple, conscientious, Dharmic young man.
Sriram said his brother would never even drive fast, so the allegation levelled against him of ‘mowing down farmers’ is false.
“No one is showing the initial videos when the car is attacked with lathis..where blood is flowing (points to the head) as he drives the car. That is not being shown. If their protest was against the bills, why harm government representatives. Besides we dont think these bills will harm us, they will only help us get better prices for wheat and paddy. Just like we barely have sugarcane crop here,” says Shri Ram.
The brother demands that police arrest and severely punish those who brutally beat his brother to death.
lf he were late in coming back from his driving duties, Hari Om Mishra would sleep on the floor so as not to disturb the family. The house has an open kitchen with just two rooms, of which one was used by Hari Om to do his daily prayers and keep sacred Hindu religious texts.
Crying inconsolably, his sister Madhuri said, “He treated my father and mother as his biggest pilgrimage. Despite earning only Rs 10,000, he would bring medicines and treatment for his father.”
Villagers whom The New Indian spoke to said those behind the violence were not farmers.
This is something HinduPost has also heard from many sources: that the protests that day were infiltrated by anti-social elements, some of whom were from outside. Those seen lynching Hari Om, Shubham and Shyam Sundar on videoss, and the Sikh man seen wearing a Bhindranwale T-shirt at the site need to be arrested and grilled for the true facts to emerge. But entire media and opposition focus is on somehow framing Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish for the incident, and getting the minister to resign.
“If 8 people die in an incident, from both sides, we can term it an accident. But you go to the houses of only 4 people? All political parties are going to the houses of just 4 people (Sikh farmers). You don’t go to the other houses. Why…what is their fault? If a son is born in a Brahmin house and he gets killed, no political party will visit his house? Why? Because you are just worried about votebank? You have no empathy in your mind,” said Mitresh Chaturvedi.
Om Prakash and Gaya Prasad from the village said, “He (Hari Om) didn’t do any wrong…He lived a clean life and never got involved in any fights or squabbles.”
“Those who were protesting were Khalistanis…if they were farmers, will they will kill someone? Will they walk around with swords, spears and lathis? If we start moving around like that, then?” said another youth from the village.
