Ahmedabad| A Nizamuddin kind of accident took place in Haridwar as well, where people have gathered in large number despite the claims of government not allowing social gatherings. According to the Gujarat CM’s Secretary, Ashwani Kumar, around 1800 residents from various districts of Gujarat were stuck in Haridwar, and top ministers including Central Home Minister Amit Shah and CM Vijay Rupani, made efforts to bring them back.
The point to be noted is, this was done amid lockdown in a very secret manner, which was not known to anyone in the country. While efforts were made to bring back the Gujarati people from the holy destination, no efforts were made by the government, whether state or national for the migrating laborers trying to go back home. Despite the international media calling it as the largest mass movement after independence, it was too small to catch the attention of honorable Home Minister of the country or any of the Cabinet ministers.
Also, while the mainstream media of the country left no stone unturned to discuss the Nizamuddin incident, or what has happened in Indore, they just goofed up the Haridwar incident and the stone pelting incidents at Solapur, Maharashtra, or religious gathering at Faridabad.
Interestingly, this work was done with such secrecy that even the Transport Minister of Uttarakhand did not get the news that many buses of his department had gone for 1200 km crossing the borders of many states during lockdown.
An order issued on March 27 shows that these vehicles of Uttarakhand Transport were sent directly to Gujarat under the instructions of the Chief Minister’s Office. Their purpose was to bring the people of Gujarat trapped in Haridwar to their homes. While returning, these vehicles could have brought the people of Uttarakhand stranded there, but no such order was issued by the Uttarakhand government.
When these buses started leaving from Haridwar and this news became public, the matter started getting surrounded by controversies. Questions began to arise that when people are stranded at different places all over the country due to the lockdown and people from many different states are stranded in Uttarakhand too, why are special buses being run only for the people of Gujarat? Along with this, questions also arose that why no bus was run for the migrants from Uttarakhand, who are forced to return on foot from all places?
Public traffic was disrupted after the lockdown was announced on March 25, but large gatherings were halted several days before that. In such a situation, these people had full time to return to Gujarat before the lockdown, so why did these people not return before March 25? These people of the home state of the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, are also being described as close to them.
