Bring Back Workers Home : Guarantee Safe Return For All Migrants From The PM CARES Fund ! End Hate-Mongering Against Corona Patients!!

THE struggle to bring back safely all stranded workers to their homes is not over. CPIML, AICCTU and AIARLA have been raising this issue but the governments are adamant on creating hurdles and ignoring the most important aspect of the fight with the Covid-19 pandemic. The central government had to declare a plan to start trains/buses under pressure but that’s proving to be highly inadequate as were the suspicions raised from many quarters since the beginning. The whole process of bringing back workers was designed in such a way that most of them have been excluded. The Home Secretary gave a ‘clarification’ that the said order is not meant for ‘regular’ migrants. And now under pressure of business lobbies the center and state governments are working to find ways of retaining beleaguered workers wherever they are stranded so that they can be exploited by industrialists who at many places are now allowed to open industries under the third phase of Lockdown.

The Rajasthan government Labour Department has issued an order to take quick disciplinary action against workers who don’t report on duty on the call of the employers while most of the workers are willing to go home first, and they are still facing food shortages and hunger. In Karnataka, state government has cancelled the special train which was booked for such workers. This was a follow up action after the meeting of Karnataka CM with the representatives of construction sector employers.

The arrangements should have been made without any delay for the safe return of migrant workers, but the Central government has washed its hands of the responsibility after issuing orders and guidelines and shouldering all the job on the concerned states. This was demanded to make arrangements for sanitized trains for the transportation home of ALL workers. While this has not been done, the Sangh-BJP machinery and their leaders are openly spreading false propaganda and fake news insulting Bihari workers, minorities and women.

Earlier, false propaganda was done against the Tablighi Jamat and hate was spread against minorities; now Bihari migrant workers are being targeted at various places. In Karnataka they are being called ‘Corona Bomb’. This hateful profiling of minorities and Bihari migrant workers is extremely condemnable.

Why are migrant workers from Bihar being targeted in Karnataka where there is a BJP government? The people of Bihar require answers to this question from Sushil Modi and Nitish Kumar. Considering the squalid and unhygienic conditions in which workers are forced to live, it is natural that they are more vulnerable to Corona infection. But nobody can be permitted to spread hatred against them because of this. The anti-worker and anti-Bihar face of the BJP and Nitish Kumar is now visible to everyone. Why has not the Karnataka government made proper arrangements for migrant workers? Why is Nitish Kumar remaining a mute spectator without doing anything? The people of Bihar want answers to these questions. CPIML Bihar Legislative Party leader Mahboob Alam has asked these questions in a letter to the Bihar Chief Minister.

Today, we are seeing that Corona patients who have recovered are proving to be a new and effective weapon in the war against Coronavirus. Covid recovered members of Tablighi Jamat are the first to come forward to donate their plasma for the treatment of Covid patients. Even after facing so much venomous and demonizing propaganda they stood firm for human values which is a lesson for all of us to learn and follow.

We need to have sympathy, empathy, and love and affection towards Corona patients and ensure that they get proper medical treatment. But unfortunately the BJP-Sangh is still busy spreading hate and venom even in these times of global pandemic.

Charging Migrant Workers for Return Home Condemnable

After countrywide condemnations instead of accepting the mistake BJP leaders and their propaganda machinery came in action denying that the Railways are not charging fare from the stranded workers. But the fact is workers were charged and those who did not have money were sent back from the railway stations.

A ‘Shramik Special’ train was run from Bhiwandi to Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh to transport migrant workers home. About 90 seats in this train remained empty. 100 workers who had reached the station were not allowed to board the train because they did not have money to pay for the tickets. The name of the train is ‘Shramik Special’ (Workers Special), but the worker could travel in it only if he paid for the ticket. Even an additional surcharge of Rs 50 is being charged. When the workers are in a crisis, and yet the government is extracting money even from them.

CPIML Bihar State Secretary Kunal has said that the decision by the Central government to charge migrant workers fare for returning home is highly condemnable, anti-worker, and anti-humanitarian.

He asked, what is the money in the PM CARES Fund for? Why is the Central government not spending that money on the transportation and medical treatment of migrant workers? Instead of pointing fingers at each other, the Central and State governments should guarantee the safe and comfortable return home of migrant workers.

Comrade Kunal said that the Modi government is using this time of crisis for looting workers and the working class. The salaries of government employees are being cut in the name of Corona, whereas there are no curbs on corporate companies, to whom the government is giving concession after concession. Bank loans to corporate houses have been waived on the excuse of being non-recoverable. Moreover, while the country is going through this dire crisis, the government is making plans for spending humungous amounts on building a new Parliament and Prime Minister’s residence. This is not just ridiculous, but totally unconscionable.

Charging the so-called ‘double-engine’ government in Bihar, Comrade Kunal said that when the BJP-JDU are sitting in government in Delhi as well as in Patna then Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi must answer why is there so much delay in bringing back migrant workers? The CPIML has once again demanded that migrant workers should be given Rs 10,000 Lockdown allowance, 3 months’ free ration, and guarantee of safe return home.

Delhi: Stop Treating Workers like Slaves

CPIML Delhi Secretary Ravi Rai told that no train has started from Delhi for migrant workers. Now the news from Karnataka is that the trains which had started from there have been cancelled. The same is the situation in Gujarat. This is being done under pressure from the corporate lobby so that cheap labor will be available after the Lockdown is relaxed. It should not be forgotten how the migrant worker, who works in various parts of the country and contributes his labor to the manufacturing and food production sectors, was left in the lurch in the time of crisis. Now, when the hapless worker wants to go home, he is being forcibly kept back.

When migrant workers are used as cheap labor in the factories of Delhi they are not asked for ID, registration, or proof of identity; but when it came to giving him rations, he is being asked for ration card, online registration, identity proof etc.

Workers are now being pushed towards slavery by the economic crisis resulting from the unplanned Lockdown. CPIML central committee member in Delhi Sucheta De has termed this enslavement and called for standing for the rights of workers.

Uttarakhand: Memorandum to Chief Secretary

CPIML in Uttarakhand has sent of memorandum to the Chief Secretary of the state along with two lists of stranded migrant workers with the request to bring them home. The Garhwal Secretary of CPIML Indresh Maikhury has criticized state government for the Helpline Numbers which are not either being picked up or aggrieved callers are being asked to call again. This is a time of disaster, he said, that this government should have displayed some sense of responsibility and sensitivity towards people. He also demanded to requisition more trains so that all workers stranded at far places be brought back home.

Statewide Dharna in Bihar on 5 May 2020

The Left parties organized a statewide dharna on 5 May 2020 on the occasion of the 202th birth anniversary of Karl Marx, the great teacher of the world’s proletariat. The dharna was called jointly by CPIML, CPI, CPM, Forward Bloc and RSP. The dharna was held across the State including Patna, Bhojpur, Patna Rural, Siwan, Jehanabad, Arwal, Gaya, Darbhanga, Samastipur, Gopalganj and all other Districts.

Left parties have strongly condemned the government’s orders to extract payment of fares from workers terming this anti-worker and anti-humanitarian measure. They held protests against this from 11 AM to 3 PM on 5 May 2020 while observing all Lockdown rules. The dharna program was held without gathering at a single place, by maintaining physical distancing.

The majority poor not only in India but across the world are the worst-affected victims of Covid 19 and its fall-out. After countrywide protests the Bihar government had to agree to arrange for free transportation for migrant workers.

The Central government has washed its hands off the responsibility and said that it would collect the costs from the State governments. The Bihar earlier refused to bear the costs and declared that the workers would have to pay for it, but had to succumb to the protest pressure and declared no fare for workers later.

The billions of rupees have been collected in the PM CARES Fund, but Prime Minister Modi does not wish to spend some from that amount on workers. While the Central and State governments are shirking from their responsibility, the entire burden was shifted to the workers already struggling with starvation and unemployment.

The left parties also raised the issue of arranging PPEs for hospitals, and condemned the Central government for wasting the country’s money on showmanship events like aerial showering of flowers by the Army on hospitals and other places. They also condemned purchasing of two special airplanes at Rs 6800 crores by the government at such a time of crisis.

The demands of the protest included: condemn charging of train fares from migrant workers and guarantee safe return home for all migrant workers from the PM CARES Fund; Rs 10,000 Lockdown Allowance to all workers; 3 months’ free ration to all poor including those without ration cards; guarantee of work and Rs 20 lakhs compensation to families of workers killed during this period.