Nitish Kumar should have arranged for bringing back migrants stuck in other states due to lockdown

A minister and member of Bihar’s crisis management group, Sanjay Jha has outright accused the Delhi and UP chief ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Yogi Adityanath for the failure of lockdown in Bihar. The reason cited by Jha is, Kejriwal and Yogi did not provide any help and also transport to ferry the lakhs of labourers stuck in Delhi and UP to Bihar.

Jha’s accusation against Kejriwal and Yogi is no doubt reasonably true and relevant, but he raising the issue at this juncture obviously smacks of deepening crisis and abject incompetence of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar in tackling the situation. As confessed by Jha, a day after the Centre ordered the states to implement lockdown and compulsory 14-day quarantine for incoming migrants, the migrants have become unruly and the situation was "explosive". They are refusing to stay in quarantine, some threatened suicide.

True to his style of functioning, passing the buck on others, Nitish simply tried to put the blame on Centre, Delhi and UP governments. After the Prime Minister announced the initial three-week lockdown, Nitish should have talked to Modi, Kejriwal and Yogi for bringing back the labourers. But to utter shock to the labourers,the Bihar CM advised them to stay whereever they were. This was the most stupid and cruel treatment meted out to the labourers. It simply underlines that so called messiah of the poor and downtrodden is not even aware of the living condition of the Bihari labourers in Delhi and other states.

Boasting about his achievement, ten years back, he had told the country that Bihar was no more a Bimaroo state and migration of labourers from state has completely stopped. But the reverse migration that was witnessed in the wake of coronavirus crisis simply invalidated Nitish’s claim. Not less than lakhs of labourers had to flee to Bihar after denial of food and shelter in their working places in other states.

Though Kejriwal proudly claimed that his government was providing food and shelter to the ill-fated labourers, the fact was otherwise. Only a fragment of the labourers could benefit. The labourers coming to Bihar denied of their getting benefit.

In all fairness, Nitish should have taken up the issue with Narendra Modi just after he announced lockdown. But he did not. It is beyond imagination how Nitish, who is identified as the modern Chanakya and claims to be the most efficient and astute ruler, failed to take up issue of safe return of his men and women with the Prime Minister. This happened at a time while Yogi had arranged hundreds of buses for transporting labourers from UP.

Jha’s observation that UP government dropped his people (labourers) hundreds of kilometres away from their villages is most deplorable. It was Nitish’s responsibility to ensure that Bihari labourers returned safely to their villages. He could have forced the Railways to run a couple of trains between Delhi and Patna to transport the stranded labourers. It would not have been a big deal.

Jha also came out with yet another most disgraceful comment: "I'm not into blame game, but since you (implying Yogi) provided buses and sent them, you defied and defeated the Prime Minister's call for lockdown... special buses from Anand Vihar (in Delhi) and various parts of Uttar Pradesh was organised to ferry people to different bordering districts of Bihar and people in thousands were dropped there".

The miseries and plight the labourers suffered simply underlines the apathy of the state and also complete lack of relevance of these people for the rulers and rightist mode of governance. All, Modi, Nitish, Kejriwal and Yogi simply displayed the facade of concern for the people. But in reality these people, who are the real productive force and whom the growth of economy rests, do not matter for them. If no public outcry was raised in that case probably would not have arrangements to transport at least upto the Bihar border.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar showed his concern and generosity towards the labourers by allotting Rs 100 crore as reimbursement for whoever provides food and shelter to migrants. Bihar has a strong settlement in Delhi. It has its Resident Commissioner there. Nitish is an ally of BJP. Instead of outsourcing the food delivery system he could have entrusted his people to take care of the ill-fated people. While he set aside Rs 100 crore from CM fund for the crisis, Kerala has announced a Rs 20,000-crore package. One can see the difference.

The inability to view the migrant labourer as a multifaceted human being simply underlines the contempt of the system towards them. How could anyone expect that the Central government or a state government be sympathetic to the families of these labourers when these institutions even are unwilling to treat them as human beings? The governments would not have bothered at all about them if they had not defied the lockdown. Only with a better understanding of their defiance of the lockdown can we expect to avoid a repeat of the scenes that have been playing out in cities across India.

On 31 March, the Supreme Court mandated the provision of food, shelter and medicines for humane treatment of the migrants that were stranded. But ironically this too has not been carried out in true spirit. This is being treated as mere a legal formality. The most harrowing piece of news has been ostracisation of these labourers in their own villages.

Reports from Bihar reveal that after returning to their home villages, migrant labourers are being barred from entering their villages due to fear that they may be carrying the infection. Nitish should have instructed the local administration to be more responsive and proactive in meeting this challenge. The lack of acknowledgement in the current crisis of the migrants’ desire to be with their families echoes the revulsion and feudal orientation of the administration.

The desperation for survival could be understood from their covering around 1500 km on foot to reach Bihar. In a YouTube video viewed on Thursday, nearly 20 labourers from Bihar were seen weeping and wailing for their inability to meet their family members. They were cursing Nitish and even promised not to vote for him in next election as he has deserted hem in this period of crisis.

Though the Principal Secretary, Bihar State Disaster Management Department, Pratyaya Amrit, claimed that a total of 14.56 lakh migrants have been provided relief so far in camps in Delhi, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal, the truth is otherwise.

Perilously, instead of directing the officials to visit the areas where these labourers live and identify them, Nitish Kumar has been waiting for labourers to approach him. Amrit said “we are trying to reach out to every single person who is contacting us over helpline numbers at the CM''s office, the disaster management department or the Bihar Resident Commissioner office in Delhi".

“Nitishji’s response time was not slow but his officials acted slowly. He believes more in officials than the political leadership. That is his style of working,” the BJP leader said. “The impression he has given is that he is sitting in Patna and appealing to Biharis stranded elsewhere. Maybe he is sending a message that he is acting responsibly as PM Modi has called for a complete lockdown.”

Nitish is now under fire in his home state, not only from the opposition but also allies within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). While Maharashtra’s Uddhav Thackeray and Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan have been using all resources at their command to help the labourers, Nitish has been found to be irresolute to meet the challenge. Significantly, even Hemant Soren of Jharkhand has made his presence felt by adopting a proactive approach.

Interestingly, while Nitish and his ministers were striving to show to the outer world that they were trying to bring back the labourers, the Supreme Court vindicated Nitish’s stand on not moving migrants amid lockdown on Tuesday when it told the Centre to prevent migration of people due to coronavirus. Nitish held that sending people via special buses will not only violate the lockdown but can also spread the disease and create problems for everybody in checking or tackling it.

Unfortunately, Nitish’s government has not taken adequate measures to protect the interest of the farmers. A farmer from Bikram block told, “Agriculture is not just a profession for us. It is our life. We have put in money and hard work to grow this wheat but cannot harvest because of the lockdown. The government had promised us we wouldn’t face any problem but made things more difficult for us.”