Congress president Sonia Gandhi made a smart move politically Monday as she announced her party would bear the cost of the migrant workers’ return to their homes, in a clear swipe at the Narendra Modi government after the Indian Railways said late Sunday night that state governments would have to pay for the tickets of stranded migrants on the Shramik Special trains, which they could recover from those travelling. The Railways said it was running these trains at the request of the states, which would decide who would travel on them, and they could either bear the entire cost themselves or charge the workers for their homeward journey. This is in sharp contrast to the government’s stand on repatriating Indians stranded in various parts of the world, many of whom were brought home on special Air India flights free of cost, with the Centre bearing the expense. The Congress and several other Opposition parties, not surprisingly, were quick to note that while the government was ready to pay for the largely middle class Indians stuck abroad, the mostly poor migrant labourers and others stuck in the nation’s cities, many of whom had no money at all and were in some cases even going without food, were being asked to pay to go home.
The government, stung and taken aback by the Congress president’s offer to pay for the train travel of “every needy worker and migrant labourer”, tried to point out it was subsidising 85 per cent of the cost of running the special trains half-empty (to ensure social distancing), and the states were being asked to pay only 15 per cent, but it had no answer when it was pointed out the Railways had the largesse to donate Rs 151 crores to the “PM Cares” fund, and the Opposition party also noted how it had spent nearly Rs 100 crores on transportation and food for “just one public programme in Gujarat”, a clear reference to the late February extravaganza in honour of visiting US President Donald Trump. As NC’s Omar Abdullah tweeted: “Where did ‘PM Cares’ go?”
