‘Not personal property of UP’: Rahul Gandhi to CM Yogi on hiring workers

Interacting with the media at a webinar organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) publication Organiser on Sunday, Adityanath had said other states will have to seek permission from his government before hiring workers from Uttar Pradesh.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday described as “absolutely absurd” chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s comment that other states will have to seek his government’s permission to engage workers from Uttar Pradesh, saying people are not his personal property.

A police officer stands guard as migrant workers and their families wait to get on a bus to reach a railway station to board a train to their home state of Bihar, during an extended lockdown to slow the spreading of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). (REUTERS)

“I think it’s unfortunate. I think people are first Indian and then they belong to their states. The decision on whether somebody goes to work from Uttar Pradesh to the rest of the country is not the chief minister’s. It is of the people of India and the people of Uttar Pradesh,” Gandhi told a news conference held via video conference.

Interacting with the media at a webinar organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) publication Organiser on Sunday, Adityanath had said other states will have to seek permission from his government before hiring workers from Uttar Pradesh.

“If any state wants manpower, the state government will have to guarantee social security and insurance of the workers. Without our permission they will not be able to take our people…because of the way they were treated in some states,” he had said.

But Gandhi dismissed Adityanath’s remarks.

“If a citizen of Uttar Pradesh wants to go and fulfil his dreams in Maharashtra or in Delhi or in Karnataka or anywhere else, he should have the right to do so,” he said.

“It is very unfortunate that the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh views India in such a way. These people are not his personal property. They are not the personal property of Uttar Pradesh. These people are Indian citizens and they have the right to decide what they want to do and they have the right to live the life they want to live,” Gandhi added.

“It is our job to support them to fulfil their dreams. It is not our job to say that you belong to me, you cannot go and work in Maharashtra. It’s an absolutely absurd position,” the former Congress chief said.