The Chief Ministers of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh Monday sparred over the migrant exodus during the pandemic, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s statement in the Parliament that the Delhi government had asked migrant workers to leave Delhi.
Late Monday evening, UP CM Yogi Adityanath in a tweet said that Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal calling the PM’s statement an “outright lie” was condemnable. Yogi demanded that Kejriwal apologise to the whole country.
He then accused Kejriwal of abandoning migrants at the Delhi-UP border: “Listen Kejriwal, when humankind was reeling under the impact of Covid, you forced workers from UP to leave Delhi. Your government committed the undemocratic and inhuman act of abandoning even women and young children at the UP border. Should we call you inhumanitarian or…”
Kejriwal, who had earlier hit out against the PM for alleging that the Delhi government forced migrant workers to leave, replied: “Listen Yogi, you should leave this alone. Dead bodies were floating in the river, and you were spending crores of rupees to give ads with false accolades in the Time magazine. I have not seen a more merciless and cruel ruler than you.”
On the PM’s comments in Parliament, Kejriwal had said: “The Prime Minister’s statement is an outright lie. The country hopes that the Prime Minister will be empathetic towards those who faced hardship because of Covid and those who lost loved ones. It doesn’t suit the Prime Minister to politicise the pain of people.”
Both Yogi and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had on March 28, 2020, tweeted that they were making arrangements for buses to help migrant workers. Migrants, panicked after the sudden announcement of the lockdown, had started walking home on March 26, fearing they would starve in Delhi without work or any help.
Yogi, in following tweets on Monday, alleged that the Delhi government had driven migrant workers out of Delhi. “Kejriwal is an expert in lying. When the whole country was battling a global pandemic under the leadership of the respected Prime Minister, Kejriwal was showing migrant workers the door out.”
“Water and power connections were snapped and sleeping people were woken up, put in buses and sent to the UP border. Announcements were made that buses will take people to Anand Vihar, from where buses for UP-Bihar will be available. UP government arranged buses and brought them back safely,” he tweeted.
The Delhi government has repeatedly denied the allegation that it made announcements asking people to leave the city.
“The CM actually made an appeal asking people to not the city because arrangements were being made at Delhi government schools to accommodate people. The allegation that we encouraged workers to leave is completely untrue,” said a senior official.
Senior AAP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh also took on CM Yogi, and tweeted, “Listen Yogi, is it not true that your government was involved in corruption in crematoriums? You placed tin sheets to hide the dead bodies in Lucknow crematoriums. Is this not true?”
He also accused the UP government of corruption in buying oximeters, thermometers and oxygen cylinders.
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