Bandra Migrants incident: A conspiracy? Whom to Blame?

bandra migrants incident
The Bandra migrants incident stirred a political games.
Thousands of migrant workers gathered in Bandra demanding permission to return to their native states after the Prime Minister declared that the lockdown would be extended till May 3.

The migrant labourers had gathered in Bandra demanding permission to return to their native states . They were later dispersed after the police and the local leaders intervened and asked them to vacate. The police had to resort to lathi charge to disperse them in bandra migrants incident.

Conspiracy

BJP leader Kapil Mishra called it a conspiracy and asked if migrant workers wanted to go back to their homes, why weren’t they carrying bags? He had three big bitter questions :

1. If there is a crowd of laborers going home,why does none of them have big bags?

2. Why the crowd is in the front of Jama Masjid?

3. The lockdown till April 30 in Maharashtra was already announced, so why the commotion today? It’s a conspiracy,” Mishra’s tweet roughly translated from Hindi.

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Meanwhile, the Bandra police on Wednesday arrested Navi Mumbai resident Vinay Dubey. He was arrested in connection with the ruckus outside the Bandra railway station on Tuesday afternoon. Subsequently, Vinay Dubey, was sent to the police custody till April 21.

Mr. Dubey,  was picked up from near his residence by the Navi Mumbai police. He was later handed over to the Mumbai Police late on Tuesday night. He was grilled for hours before being placed under arrest. He was questioned about a video that he had posted on his Facebook page, asking migrants from other States to gather on Tuesday. “The government must arrange transport for us so that we can go home. I will walk with you all the way to Uttar Pradesh if the need arises,” Mr. Dubey was seen saying in the video.

Special train services

A television journalist with a Marathi news channel had aired a story on the channel. He had shown that special train services would run for natives of outer states stuck in Maharashtra due to the lockdown. Whereas, the Central Railways has rubbished the report as rumour. He is still  being questioned about the story aired on the channel.

Aditya Thackeray blames Centre

Meanwhile, Maharashtra minister Aditya Thackeray blamed the Central government and tweeted “The current situation at Bandra Station, now dispersed, or even the rioting in Surat is a result of the Union Government not being able to take a call on arranging a way back home for migrant labour. They don’t want food or shelter, they want to go back home,” he said.

“A mutual road map set by Union Govt will largely help migrant labour to reach home from one state to another safely and efficiently. Time and again this issue has been raised with the centre,” Aditya said in another tweet.