Shiv Sena attacks BJP on migrants' issue, compares UP CM Yogi Adityanath to Adolf Hitler

Mumbai: Maharashtra ruling party Shiv Sena on Sunday (May 24) continued its attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over migrant workers' crisis and 

In an editorial in party's mouthpiece Saamana, Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut lashed out at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over migrants issue and compared him to German dictator Adolf Hitler. He also compared the migration of labourers to the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s.

Raut's statement comes at a time when Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena had asserted that no one should engage in politics in the time of the coronavirus pandemic.

In his weekly column in Saamana, Raut said that atrocities committed against the Jews are similar to the atrocities committed against the migrants in Uttar Pradesh by the Chief Minister. The article read, "Kashmiri Pandits were forced to leave their homes and were discriminated in their own country. Politics on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits is still being practised in the country. Today, at least 5-6 crore migrants are forced to live in the same manner."

Recently the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister had issued strict instruction to authorities to prevent any unauthorised movement of people and their families coming on foot, cycles or trucks in the state. He also directed officials to arrange for food and shelter for people and buses to ferry them to their villages.

Meanwhile, the Centre said on Saturday that there are around four crore migrants engaged in various works in different parts of the country and so far 75 lakh of them have returned home in trains and buses since the nationwide lockdown was imposed to stop the spread of coronavirus infection.

According to official data, the Railways has ferried around 36 lakh migrant workers on board 2,600 'Shramik Special' trains since May 1. The Railways has drawn up a schedule to operate 2,600 more trains over the next 10 days to ferry 36 lakh more migrant workers home, said chairman Railway Board VK Yadav. The Railways is bearing 85 per cent of the total cost of running each of the trains while the rest is being borne by the states in the form of fares.