His apprehension has not come as surprise. He was actually reflecting what these saffron leaders practice. A deeper analysis of the speeches of the BJP leaders would make it abundantly clear that they are always suspicious of the moves of the others and nurse the view that people are planning against them.

Fifty days after serving a four hours’ notice for total lockdown of the country the BJP leaders did not ever trouble to find out how the poor and daily wage earners were surviving, notwithstanding the whimsical action of the Prime Minister of enforcing the lockdown coming under severe criticism. The world is aware that he did not weigh the consequences of his whimsical action. He had left millions of migrant workers stranded without money or food in cities far from their homes.

His impulsive action was once again on show when only a couple of days back his government decided to let them return without working out the modalities. He left the entire responsibility of organising the travel to the states. The order of the home ministry read; “In case a group of stranded persons wish to move between one state/UT and another state/UT, the sending and receiving states may consult each other and mutually agree to the movement by road. The moving persons would be screened and those found asymptomatic would be allowed to proceed”.

His decision has put his partner Nitish Kumar is a severe precarious situation. He has been out reluctantly to bring back nearly 1 crore labourers to the state. Initially he had said that bring them back in the midst of lockdown would violate the spirit of the measure. Now once the Modi government allowed the transportation, Nitish says it would take a month to clear the rush.

It is interesting to watch that all other states even a state like Jharkhand has swung into action, Nitish is under the grip of nausea. While his close aides view Centre’s move as an attempt to embarrass him, others look at his reluctance as his inability to arrange for the livelihood of the migrants and his incapability to tackle the social and communal tension that has started surfacing in rural Bihar following refusal of the upper caste, especially the BJP supporters, to allow the migrants to enter into the villages. The situation has turned scary with the BJP and cadres of other sangh outfits turning vigilante and giving a call for boycott of the Muslims.

Besides these two factors there are no other reasons for Nitish turning reluctant. Bihar government has formed a Nodal committee under chief secretary of the states. But ironically no member is available on phone. Nitish’s trusted minister, Ashok Choudhary raised hands saying: “to expect the government to be responsible for the movement of such a large population is practical” While the government is yet to rise to the migrant challenge, the corona virus has started spreading in the state.

It is an open secret that since the evening of March 24, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced lockdown crores of workers have made desperate attempts to get home. Some walked thousands of miles, carrying little children on their shoulders and pulling elderly parents on cycles. If the social activists are to be believed mor thanb 50 ofsuch migrants have died on their way back home. But Modi is not at all shocked at the plight of his dear poor countrymen. The reason is they do not fit into his future design.

In fact the decision to transport them to their respective states through trains could have been made coinciding with clamping of the lockdown. But it not happen. When the labourers expressed their desire to go back, it was seen as a part of conspiracy. True enough behind the façade of painting this as conspiracy, the BJP leadership wag trying to hide its real intentions and failures.

What has really been shocking is that the individual migrant labourer was asked to pay for the travel when the poor guy even does not have money to buy food. Nothing could be more atrocious than this. Heaven would not have fallen if the government has made them travel free.Modi can prefer to write off loans worth Rs 68000 of crores looted by cronies like ‘Mehul bhai’, Nirav and others but his government is finding it tough proposition to pay for the travel fare of the poor labourer.

Undeniably the Centre has mercilessly, cruelly and without second thought has abandoned the entire category of migrant labour, students and others stranded at many places. For the senior BJP leader who smelt conspiracy the disorder created in proper handling of return of the migrants may be a simple case of “mismanagement” but an insight into the attitude and approach of the BJP rulers make it explicit that was more out of their hatred and dislike for the poor.

The Modi government certainly would not have adopted this stance if these people belonged to the middle class, its vote bank. One thing is absolutely clear that Modi and his colleagues do not intend to create any confusion in this section of middle class by showing much concern for the poor. The BJP and Sangh are against the middle class nursing the view that the Modi government was spending the money meant for them on the poor and labourers. Their opposition to the poor has been an open secret. They had strongly protested against Manmohan Singh government allotting huge money on food for the poor and labourers.

Yet another poignant reason for government taking this decision was threat of creation of situation like civic unrest. The 50 day odd nationwide lockdown hs dried up the sources of livelihood for migrant workers in different parts of the country. They were forced to the situation of starvation. Even thes philanthropist and NGOs which had earlier come forward to help were feeling handicapped. This situation was more dangerous than the threat of corona. People had started defying the government orders and authorities. Any lingering of the situation would have witnessed emergence of large scale turmoil and violence. In this backdrop the government was left with no option but to allow them to move.

A majority of the migrant workers hail from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha. Former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian correctly underlined that there was an economic sense in facilitating the exit of workers. Migrant workers will return to work only when they are assured that, in times of crisis, they can go back easily and safely to the sanctuary of their villages.

This May 1 finds the workers stripped not just of their jobs by corona crisis but also of some of the rights they had earned through decades of struggle. Usually the workers were paid twice the wage for extra hours but now in future this privilege will be denied to the. In Gujarat, they will be paid at the same rate for the extra hours as for the first eight hours, although the Factories Act mandates payment at twice the wage rate for the extra hours. (IPA Service)