Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday slammed the Opposition Congress party for raising the migrant crisis triggered by the sudden lockdown and asked if states, where the grand old party is in power, handled the issue any better. The finance minister said that the Narendra Modi government had announced the PM Garib Kalyan scheme within hours after the lockdown was brought in.
"We thought of giving them cooking gas and some amount to run the house. I would ask opposition, have those state govts, where they're in power, handled this matter any better? Wouldn't the attention be towards those govts where their party/alliance partners are in power?" Sitharaman said. "They have not flattened the curve, they have not had the migrants handled in a very exemplary way that all of us can learn from them."
The finance minister said that the Modi government will help migrant workers, who walked back to their homes amid the pandemic fears, to return back to cities and towns. "... there is a lot of work to be done by the Centre, the states and companies. We will have to see how best we going to work this out with the companies and also with migrants who may want to return," she told the news agency.
On calling Rahul Gandhi's meeting with migrants a "drama"
The finance minister also explained why she called Rahul Gandhi's meeting with migrant workers and helping them to reach home a drama. She said that the Congress party had called her pressers a drama and she too had the right to comment on Gandhi's meeting with migrant workers.
"If ours - official press conferences telling what package govt wants to give - is called a drama, stopping migrants when they're walking, at that time you go, sit&have a 'gupshup'. Don't I have a right to comment on it?" she said.
Lakhs of migrant labourers were forced to walk back to their homes after the sudden announcement of a nation-wide lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic. They were left without jobs, food and shelter due to the lockdown. The government had shut the entire country's transport system which forced them to walk hundreds of kilometers to their native places.
So far, over a hundred migrants have lost their lives - some died of hunger, some due to accidents. While the government did allow a few trains for them after more than a month's suffering, thousands are still walking to their homes.
