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Warring’s bid to cash in on migrant labourers’ travel home raises eyebrows
Gidderbaha MLA distributed posters crediting the Congress with paying for their travel; draws backlash from opposition, social media
The local Congress leadership is facing social media flak and opposition disapproval for trying to draw political mileage out of migrant labourers’ crisis, after its Gidderbaha MLA Amrinder Singh Raja Waring and other party workers distributed pamphlets among them, crediting the party with paying for their travel.
The first such train from Bathinda, the Shramik Express, carrying 1,388 passengers had left for Muzaffarpur in Bihar on Sunday morning in which pamphlets were distributed. The pamphlets were distributed from the platform, with a video of the incident going viral on social media on Monday. Another train for Daltonganj in Jharkhand left Bathinda Sunday evening.
To take credit, Congress leaders verbally said to labourers that its their party president Sonia Gandhi and chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh who paid for their travel. The pamphlets claim that its the Congress party which has come to help the people. “The central government is wrongly claiming that its making contribution in paying the rail fare of labourers but the fact is that Punjab government is fully paying the fare,” claim the pamphlets.
Sharing the video over Facebook, a user Jagsher Sidhu commented, “People doing this should be ashamed, as irrespective of who paid for the travel, taking political mileage out of the plight of stranded migrant labourers is not done.”
Bathinda deputy commissioner B Srinivasan said the administration had paid for travel expenses of migrant labourers from the State Disaster Relief Fund. NGOs helped with making arrangement for food, he added.
Former Bathinda (urban) MLA and SAD leader Sarup Chand Singla said, “It is unfortunate that Congress leaders are trying to draw political mileage out of the condition of migrant labourers. The Congress has failed to provide help to the needy during the lockdown.”
Bathinda Improvement Trust chairman KK Aggarwal, who also distributed these pamphlets said, committees of Congress workers had been formed to coordinate with the administration to ensure that the migrant labourers don’t face any problem. “There is no politics in what we did as it is not even certain if these workers will back and vote in Punjab. The state party leadership had designed these pamphlets.”
Warring couldn’t be contacted despite repeated calls on his mobile phone. The former Youth Congress president, however, is no stranger to controversies. During a campaign address in Pilibanga assembly segment in Rajasthan assembly polls in December 2018, Warring had spoken of giving “Khansi Wali Davai” (cough syrup) to those who come to Punjab after electing a Congress candidate. He was accused of promoting liquor consumption.
During panchayat elections in Punjab in December 2018, his video of allegedly saying that state government has many methods to reject or accept the nomination papers had also gone viral on social media. At the time, the SAD and the AAP had been accusing the Congress of rejecting nomination papers of their nominees on frivolous grounds.
