The politics of train: No one wants to miss the bus

Railways’ decision to run Shramik special trains without the mandatory consent of states has given a short in the arm to the BJP, whose ministers had run into confrontation with several opposition Chief Ministers on the issue.

Well those who are trained in politics understand the politics of training well. A full blown political war brew over the Shramik Special train issue before the Centre decided to go for a change of rules in running these on Tuesday.

Home Minister Amit Shah as well as Railway Minister Piyush Goyal have been alleging that Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal (where elections are due in 2021) is not giving consent for running the Shramik special trains even as lakhs of migrants were stranded. Shah had written a letter to Banerjee a fortnight back saying that now allowing migrants trains to go to the state is “injustice” accusing her of not cooperating with the Centre to ensure that migrants reach home.

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Banerjee had hit back raising the issue in the Prime Minister’s video conference interaction with Chief Ministers on April 11, wondering how the letter written to her by the Centre got leaked to the media even before reaching her. Her party accused the Home Minister of resorting to ‘bundle of lies to mislead people after failing to discharge his duty during the Corona crisis.”

Later Railway Minister Piyush Goyal over his charge that several states like West Bengal, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand (all ruled by Opposition parties Trinamool Congress, Congress and JMM) are not giving permission for ‘Shramik Special’ trains to enter their states.

Hitting back Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said he was not surprised to see the statement by the Railway Minister and said the BJP ministers are “skilled in passing their failures on to state governments.”

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said that at the very onset, Goyal saying Chhattisgarh had demanded 10 special trains is a “lie” as the state had made a demand for 30 trains and that there are no pending permission or consent for any train from Chhattisgarh government. The Congress’ Chief Minister also alleged that the BJP-rule Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir (under central rule) have not given their consent yet to Chhattisgarh for running the special trains and asked “whose government is in all these states.

The successive lockdowns announced by the central government starting March 25 has seen lakhs of migrants on roads moving even on foot and walking for weeks to reach their homes, which later forced the government to run special trains and special buses to ferry them back home as massive tragedies occurred like 16 migrants labourers walking down a railway track in Mumbai mowed by a train and more than two dozen labourers killed in road accident in Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh, whose images haunted the national psyche.

Seeking to play a contrast in approach of BJP government of UP and TMC government of West Bengal, the national in-charge of social media BJP Mahila Morcha Priti Gandhi said, “just to put things in proper perspective, where Uttar Pradesh govt has given approval to nearly 800 Shramik special trains for migrants labourers, West Bengal govt has given the nod to only 19 trains so far.”

“Reason for the chaos & migrants having to bear severe hardships is because migrant-heavy states have approved very few trains - Chhattisgarh only 19 trains, Rajasthan only 33 trains & Jharkhand only 72 trains. Odisha has also suspended trains to coastal areas due to cyclones. Even Bihar is not allowing more than 50 trains per day while the requirement is of 200 trains per day. The states with maximum migrant population are subtly blocking their entry back inside. It's important to understand the reason behind the chaos before blaming the Centre!,” she said.

According to 2011, the total number of migrants is 45.36 crores with huge migration of people in search of jobs from Hindi heartland and adjoining states of West Bengal and Odisha. These migrant votes have a pattern and despite working elsewhere, they go back to their state of origin to cast votes.

In last West Bengal assembly polls, political parties of the state had arranged special trains from cities like Delhi to bring them back to vote. BJP is betting big in West Bengal in next year state polls after recording a nine-fold jump in the number of its MPs from the state (from 02 in 2014 to 18 in 2019).

Congress is seeking a revival in Uttar Pradesh and hence Priyanka Gandhi has been in forefront of taking up migrant issues there. Bihar, which goes to polls in October this year has also seen a big fight on migrant issues in the state with Congress and RJD attacking the ruling NDA dispensation there.