Forgotten, nowhere people

Gurbachan Jagat

About a couple of weeks ago, another bombshell exploded in the Indian skies without any pre-warning. As in the earlier cases of demonetisation and GST, this lockdown also took the country by surprise. It would have been normal expectation that after the experience of the first two misfires, the wise men of Delhi would have done their homework more meticulously this time. However, this fond hope did not materialise and a few hours after the announcement, we found the entire administrative machinery of the country in a state of semi-paralysis. Why could not the Opposition parties and experts have been taken into confidence? Why the lack of any consultation/debate, inputs from the home and health departments? Where was the need for all the secrecy? Why a path which resulted in panic everywhere? The Central and state governments responded in their own fashion, often at odds with each other. A well thought out, graded, step-by-step plan was nowhere to be seen. The impact of the announcement was to be seen in every aspect of a citizen’s life. However, I shall pick only one aspect and dwell on it: labour.

Factories closed down, businesses got shut, transport, railways, airways — in short, everything came to a standstill. At the national, state and district levels, there was no one to guide the people’s response, lakhs and lakhs became unemployed overnight. Farm, construction, industrial labour, all found themselves sitting in their dwellings and wondering as to where the next meal would come from and as to whether they will get employment again. Seeing nothing around them except a huge vacuum, the same thought struck all of them: let’s go back to our villages, which happened to be in UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal. Families put together whatever they could and began the long march back.

They started from Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat… they did not think of the hundreds of miles that they would have to walk in the absence of any kind of transport. They took the first step and the next step and step followed step in this seemingly endless journey. Now the interest of the media was aroused, and so was that of the politicians. Out of nowhere these people were given the label of ‘migrants’, which was a very convenient way of suppressing their group and individual identities. One waited for the response of the administration to this colossal tragedy and this came in the form of setting up of ad hoc camps and serving food in unhygienic conditions. The migrants were asked to stop wherever they were, some were made to squat like animals and were sprayed with disinfectants, some were beaten up by overzealous policemen. The Chief Ministers of their home states exhorted them not to come back, but to stay wherever they were and relief would be given to them. All this practically meant that they should camp by the roadsides and wait for dole-outs of food. Of course, nobody talked of shelter or clothes or medicine or sanitary conditions, etc.

To date, I have not read in any newspaper of senior ministers/CMs, administrators visiting these so-called camps and meeting the migrants and seeing their conditions. National and state leaders are often seen taking aerial surveys of disaster-affected areas; in this case, they have dispensed with this token presence as well. I did not see any photograph or read of any Opposition party leaders visiting these camps and offering even a token of support….too scared perhaps.

Where were all the Twitterati? It appears that some unanimous decision was taken to ignore these people. Instead, the focus in the media remained on the speeches being made, on the monologues being delivered and on celebrity banging of thalis and lighting of candles. Day by day the story of the migrants started disappearing and it is rarely mentioned now. The question arises: where were these migrants originally from? In which state did they find employment? How did they decide to go back? Are they still sitting in camps or roadsides or have they reached home? Having lost their jobs, where is relief coming from and in what form? What are the chances of them going back to the states which gave them employment? When will they be allowed to travel freely and be accepted in other states? Has any government agency taken up a census of these migrants in order to establish their identities?

There are endless questions with regard to this tragedy which some people compare to the great migration of 1947-48 without the violence. I happen to close my eyes and look upwards and in my mind’s eye I see a galaxy of our illustrious ancestors looking down upon us with sober expressions — of incredulity and disbelief. I see in this vision Gandhi, Patel, Nehru, Azad, Ambedkar, SP Mukherjee and Bhagat Singh and thousands of freedom fighters… and then I hear the following lines being recited:

‘Yeh Daag-Daag Ujala, Yeh Shab-Gazida Sehar

Woh Intezaar Tha Jiska Yeh Woh Sehar Toh Nahi

Yeh Woh Sehar Toh Nahi Jiski Aarzoo Lekar Chale The

Yaar Ki Mil Jaayegi Kahin Na Kahin

Falak Ke Dasht Mein Taaron Ki Aakhiri Manzil’

— The writer is ex-chairman of UPSC & former Manipur Governor