After Bandra chaos, the Maha political blame game begins

Left red-faced by the gathering of migrant labourers outside Bandra railway station on Tuesday, Maharashtra ministers blamed the railway ministry, terming the incident

Left red-faced by the gathering of migrant labourers outside Bandra railway station on Tuesday, Maharashtra ministers blamed the railway ministry, terming the incident a “conspiracy” against the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), meanwhile, called the incident an “intelligence failure” and alleged the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) planned the crowding to give the issue a communal colour.

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A parallel battle also ensued on social media with hashtags “UddhavResign” and “Maharashtra with CM”. Since the incident at Bandra station, hashtag “UddhavResign” was trending on Twitter. Subsequently, on Wednesday, the Shiv Sena circulated the hashtag “MaharashtrawithCM’ to push it on Twitter. Several members of the party tweeted with the hashtag, backing chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday evening to win the perception battle.

Amid the political slugfest, the Mumbai Police have arrested Vinay Dubey for allegedly uploading a video on social media asking migrant workers from north India to gather at Kurla Terminus on April 18 to demand that they should be sent back to their native town. Home minister Anil Deshmukh said, “Misinformation regarding the commencement of trains from April 14, 2020, was spread using 11 different methods. The accounts have been tracked, FIRs are being filed & due legal consequences will follow.” The Maharashtra cybercrime team has identified more than 30 accounts spreading rumour about train services, Deshmukh said.

A day after Thackeray urged against politicisation of migrants’ issues, NCP chief Sharad Pawar asked people to refrain from putting misleading messages on social media. He also appealed the political leaders to rise above politics. Terming the Bandra incident as “unfortunate”, Pawar in an address via Facebook Live, said, “Thousands of people gathered near Bandra station and social distancing rules were violated. Do not put any message that will mislead people…I want to appeal to all leaders across the political spectrum that there is nothing wrong in doing politics, but this is not the right time as the country is going through a serious crisis. Hence, there is a need to work in tandem irrespective of which party government is in the state. I’m hoping that due care will be taken to ensure such incidents will not be repeated.”

Former Maharashtra chief minister and state public works department minister Ashok Chavan on Wednesday alleged a political conspiracy behind Tuesday’s gathering of migrants at the railway station and a social media campaign which followed demanding ‘President’s rule’ in Maharashtra. “We are investigating the entire episode of crowding by migrant workers at the Bandra station on Tuesday evening. We are investigating who was patronising the social media campaign holding the state government responsible for it,” said Chavan at a video press conference. Chavan and state revenue minister and Maharashtra Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat said that the railways were accepting train bookings till April 14 which added to the confusion. Chavan alleged that the officials of the railway ministry have faulted and minister Piyush Goyal should look into it.

Thorat, who was also a part of the video press conference, said the Railways had taken online booking till Tuesday afternoon before announcing the cancellation of all trains. “The confusion among the migrants led to the incident. It did not pertain to any specific community or religion. The crowd included migrants from all communities,” he said.

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari alleged Dubey was a member of the NCP. Ashish Shelar, BJP legislator from Bandra West, where the incident occurred, in a letter to Shiv Sena minister Aaditya Thackeray and BMC commissioner Praveen Pardeshi, said the congregation was an “intelligence failure”. In his letter, he demanded that immediate provision be made of ration and financial aid for these labourers. “The plot was orchestrated by Dubey, who is a member of the NCP. He has contested an election on their ticket. If there was any confusion about the trains and if migrants had come to board a train, why would they not carry any luggage, why were there no women and children, why would they come to Bandra local station,” Bhandari asked.

NCP spokesperson and state minority affairs minister Nawab Malik said Dubey is not a member of the NCP. On Tuesday, Sena minister Aaditya Thackeray blamed the Centre for not arranging trains for migrants before lockdown was announced on March 24. Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Wednesday sought police action against BJP’s Kapil Mishra who through a tweet posed similar questions like the one Bhandari asked.