New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement in Parliament that the Delhi government asked migrant labourers to leave during the first wave of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic led to a war of words between Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath. Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) called the statement a “blatant lie”.
A few hours later, Adityanath attacked Kejriwal in a series of tweets, saying his criticism of PM Modi’s statement was condemnable and demanded he apologise to the whole country.
“Kejriwal has a knack for telling lies. When the whole country was battling a global pandemic like Covid under the leadership of the respected Prime Minister, Kejriwal showed the migrant laborers the way out of Delhi,” Adityanath said in a tweet posted in Hindi.
He said that the electricity and water connections of migrants were cut and the sleeping people were picked up and sent to the UP border by buses.
“Listen Kejriwal, you forced the workers of UP to leave Delhi when the entire humanity was reeling under the impact of Covid. Your government did an undemocratic and inhuman act like leaving even small children and women helpless on the UP border in the middle of the night. Should we call you an enemy of humanity or…”
Kejriwal, who had hit out at PM Modi for alleging that Delhi government forced migrant workers to leave, replied: “Listen Yogi, you just let it be. Dead bodies of the people of UP were flowing in the river and you were giving advertisements of your false applause in Times magazine by spending crores of rupees. I have never seen such a harsh and cruel ruler like you.”
Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tore into the opposition parties in Parliament, accusing the Congress and AAP of contributing to the widespread of Covid-19 in the initial days by pushing migrant labourers to leave Mumbai and Delhi, thereby triggering a crisis.
“Congress gave free train tickets to migrant workers to leave Mumbai. At the same time, the Delhi government went around slums in jeeps and announced on mics that whoever wants to go home, buses have been arranged to leave the city. This led to the spread of Covid in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand,” said PM Modi while replying to the debate in Lok Sabha on motion of thanks to President Ram Nath Kovind’s address to Parliament.
Kejriwal said the statement is false and added that the Prime Minister should be sensitive towards those who bore the pain of the Covid-19 pandemic and those who lost their loved ones at that time.
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