The death of several migrant workers amidst the
pandemic has been a major issue that has led towards the war of words among
several people. Several events in Aurangabad, Auraiya, Bhopal, and other road accidents have been perceived as threats and have developed a feeling of worry
and scare in the minds of people. The miserable sight of migrant workers
walking home has been in the limelight ever since the pandemic began and this has
caused immense chaos among people across states, especially the migrant
workers.
During a time when there is a severe need for a
humane approach, political parties have entered into a war of words and have
been accusing each other of playing politics and of ‘POLITICISING’ the whole
event for their profit. The current row over arranging busses for migrant
workers have taken shape of political fallout between the Congress and Bharatiya
Janta Party (the ruling government) in Uttar Pradesh. The Yogi Adityanath
Government and Congress Government have started a blame game wherein both the
parties and their officials have entered into a conflict over the bus
arrangement initiative for the migrant workers.
Almost a week back, Priyanka Gandhi, Vice-President
of the Congress Party accused the Uttar Pradesh Government of being insensitive
and non-caring towards the migrant workers who wanted to return to their homes
during this lockdown due to the pandemic. The day the Auraiya Truck collision
accident took place, in which around 24 migrant workers lost their lives, the
whole country mourned over the misery of the travelers who were the migrants. A
day after the incident, Congress Vice-President Priyanka Gandhi posted a video
on twitter appealing and urging Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to
allow the Congress party to help the migrant workers by aiding them to go to
their homes, for which they were ready to arrange buses for the transport. She
put a video wherein she said that the buses would be standing at the border and
also uploaded a video of the same. But the Congress also blamed Uttar Pradesh
Government to have ignored the offer.
After the appeal on social media, the Uttar Pradesh
government agreed to the offer made by Priyanka Gandhi to run 1000 buses to
bring back migrant workers into the state. She was asked by the officials to
send them the list of the bus numbers, names of conductors and bus drivers, and
other important details. She soon used the social media platform to thank Chief
Minister Yogi Adityanath and the Uttar Pradesh government for allowing the
Congress party to help those in need.
Everything was nice and merry. But it can’t be so happy and
easy all the time, because after all, it’s all about the vote-bank.
After all these lovely exchanges, soon began the
dirty game of politics and the war of words. A week back, after the bus deal
was agreed upon, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath blamed the Congress party for
using the plight of the migrant workers to play politics. He said that they had
been waiting for the list of details for 3 days and nothing has been received.
He also blamed the party for the Auraiya road accident that took place, as the
trucks were from Punjab and Rajasthan, both states being led by the Congress
government. Apparently, the Congress party alleged that the Uttar Pradesh
government also demanded the buses that they wish to ply be given to the state
administration.
Thus, the war of words and the dirty blame game
hasn’t stopped ever since.
Priyanka Gandhi’s personal secretary, Sandeep Singh
sent a letter to UP Additional Chief Home Secretary, Awanish Awasthi stating that
“In a situation when thousands of workers are walking on the streets and
thousands of people have gathered at the UP borders at various registration
centers, sending 1,000 empty buses to Lucknow is not only a waste of time and
resources but is also inhumane and the product of an anti-poor mindset.”He also
sent the details of buses in an email.
Later the Rajasthan cabinet had claimed that around
500 buses were ready to be sent to Uttar Pradesh, but buses were not allowed by
the Yogi Adityanath’s Government to cross the border.
On Tuesday, Priyanka Gandhi was asked to provide
buses for the migrants as check for permits, licenses, etc has to be done. To
this, Priyanka Gandhi responded by stating that the buses would be available by
5pm due to the time required to seek permits.
But the war got even nastier when the Uttar Pradesh government claimed that the details of the buses didn’t match the buses and
instead were details of two-wheelers, four-wheelers, and three-wheelers. This
was followed by the claims that Congress was committing fraud, their attempt
to help the migrants was all a scam and they should be held responsible for
their ‘farzivad approach’.
All these claims were rubbished by Uttar Pradesh
Congress Chief Ajay Lallu.
As of now, none of the buses have moved, permission
is yet to be given or received and Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu and Priyanka Gandhi
Vadra’s secretary has been booked for forgery by the Uttar Pradesh Police.
So far, around 9 letters have been exchanged and the
exchanges have been dirty, nasty, and blame driven, with a lack of intention to
help people visible. The interest is more towards protecting the image of the
party and entering the game of exposing each other, by sidelining the real
issue.
The only thing which is evidently visible is the fact that, even at the times of crisis, vote-banks, nasty blame games and will
be placed over everything else, and it is sad to see that all of this, during
this pandemic is happening at the cost of the lives of the migrants.
- Vijayasree V
Comments
Post a Comment