'Activist' arrested for 'inciting' migrant labourers to protest at Bandra railway station amid lockdown

Dubey on his Facebook profile over the last few days ran a campaign titled as "ghar wapsi andolan" criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for calling an "unplanned lockdown" that has led the migrant workers homeless.

In a Facebook post on Monday, a day ahead of Modi's call to extend the lockdown till May 3, Dubey even threatened to protest if the Centre does not help the migrants to return to their homes by Apr 18.

Thousands of migrant workers, with most of them from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, assembled at Bandra station in Mumbai on Tuesday to protest against the Prime Minister's extension of the lockdown which was initially called for 21 days.

At a time huge gathering is banned across the country, police were left with no other choice but to lathicharge the workers to disperse them.

Besides the arrest of Dubey, a television journalist has been charged in a First Information Report (FIR) for citing an internal note of the Centre claiming a special train will be run to take the migrant workers back to their native lands.

The internal note, which was withdrawn after Modi announced the extension of the lockdown, stated a "Jan Sadharan" train will be run for the migrant workers.

Following the Bandra incident, the Railway Ministry issued a clarification on Twitter saying, "It is clarified that all Passenger train services are fully cancelled, across the nation, till 3rd May 2020 and there is no plan to run any special train to clear the passenger rush All concerned may pl.take note of the same and help us in resisting any wrong news in this regard."

Later Union Home Minister Amit Shah called Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and expressed concern besides extending full support to handle the situation.

Shah told his former political ally Thackeray that such events weaken India's fight against Coronavirus and the administration needs to stay vigilant to avoid these. 

In an attempt to calm the agitating migrant workers, Thackeray said, "I would urge them (migrant workers) to stay here. All of you will be fed. You cannot go home right now."

The unprecedented lockdown, which was initially called for 21 days, has caused humanitarian crisis as several migrant workers and daily wagers suffered the most over the last few weeks.

Much before the Bandra incident, the migrant workers were seen desperately trying to reach home by walking hundreds of kilometers across the state borders with some of them dying due to the lockdown.

(Images: UNI, Vinay Dubey Facebook)