Chaos at Bandra Railway Terminus as thousands gather to go home

All hell broke loose on Tuesday evening as thousands of restive migrant workers from other States gathered at Bandra Railway Terminus in a desperate hope that they would able to head back to their native villages and towns, thus throwing social distancing norms to the wind during the extended lockdown period.

Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the nation extended the lockdown by another 19 days i.e, till May 3, thousands of somewhat distraught migrants, who were expecting Modi to relax the lockdown to an extent that the Government would run some special trains for them to go back their native places, staged a dharna in front of the Bandra railway station for an hour, demanding that they be allowed to return to their native places.

Earlier, around 4 pm, the migrants, who had begun to gather at different places in Mumbai before the PM addressed the nation, began to arrive at the Bandra Railway Terminus, from where several outstation trains depart.

Before long, the crowds swelled to anywhere 4,000 to 5,000 people.

Disappointed by the lack of announcement from the Prime Minister to make available trains for them to head back home, the aggrieved migrants - who are mostly from north-Indian States -- staged a dharna in front of the Bandra railway station, flouting the prohibitory orders banning the assembly of four or more persons enforced all over the State.

In an apparent intelligence failure, the police personnel deployed in relatively small numbers were taken by surprise to see such large crowds arriving at the Bandra railway terminus. However, they called for additional reinforcements to control the crowds. After exhorting the crowds of migrants to disperse, the police resorted to mild lathi-charge.

The senior police personnel also appealed to the migrant workers that it was in their interest that they stayed back in the State. “The State Government has made all arrangements for his stay and will take care of needs like shelter, food and drugs in the coming days,” a senior police officer announced.

At one stage, Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique also tried to calm the migrants down, by appealing to them to disperse and promised to take up their issue with the Maharashtra Government.

The situation began to return to normal slowly. At round 6 pm, Mumbai Police spokesperson and Deputy Commissioner of Police Pranaya Ashok announced that “the crowds had dispersed”. The local police officials also said that the situation in front of the Bandra railway station “is very much under control” and steps were afoot to sanitise the entire area as a precautionary measure.

Significantly enough, the two-hour-long high-voltage drama took place in front of the Bandra Railway Terminus which is barely two kilometres away from “Matoshri”, the private residence of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray at Kalanagar, Bandra (east). 

Reacting to the explosive emerging situation at the Bandra railway station, Shiv Sena leader and State Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray swiftly took to twitter, to blame the Modi Government for the situation. “The current situation at Bandra Station, now dispersed or even the rioting in Surat is a result of the Union Govt not being able to take a call on arranging a way back home for migrant labour. They don’t want food or shelter, they want to go back home,” Aditya tweeted.

Aditya followed it up with another tweet which was somewhat mild in nature. “The migrant labour issue persists everywhere. Even as we house more than 6 lakh migrant labour, with breakfast lunch and dinner, the Union and State Govts are coordinating on further relief for the same. We will continue to ensure the comfort of all migrant labour in our camps,” he said.

In his third tweet put apparently after he was reined by his Chief Minister-father Uddhav Thackeray, Aditya acknowledged that the Centre had taken cognisance of the situation. “The Centre has taken immediate cognisance of the issue and is assisting the State actively. We understand the Catch 22 situation the Centre and the States face. I’m thankful to PM & HM for understanding the situation, while trying to ensure the safety of home States of migrants,” he said.

State Home Minister Amit Deshmukh, who was all fire and brimstone when he reacted to the situation at the Bandra railway station, laid the blame squarely at the door of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who, he said, had let down the migrant workers who were hoping that Modi would make an announcement that would facilitate them to return to their native places.

“Migrant labourers come to Maharashtra in large numbers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and other northern States. Today, they were hoping that the Prime Minister would make some announcement which would give them an opportunity to return to their native places. In that hope, the people had gathered in large numbers in front of Bandra railway station,” Deshmukh said.

“Following today’s decision, the States are being sealed and people are being not allowed to go from one State and another State... The migrants were hoping against hope that the Prime Minister would make an announcement that would facilitate them to return to their native places. But, the Prime Minister let the migrants down badly. That was the reason for the presence of migrants in front of the Bandra railway station,” the State Home Minister said.

Deshmukh and Mumbai Guardian Minister Aslam Shaikh said that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had discussed with Modi the issue of sending the migrants to their homes, but the Centre had announced extension of the lockdown till May 3 without addressing the concerns of the migrant workers.

Former Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam was matter of fact when said: “This was bound to happen. People have no food to eat. They are being prevented from returning to their native villages. For how long can they remain like this? The Government’s figures are merely on paper… For how long and to how many people can any Government keep feeding freely, is there no alternative?”.

Maharashtra State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that had the Prime Minister given time to the migrants to return home, they would not have come to the streets like in Mumbai, Delhi, Surat and other places.

“The State Government can provide them food, but cannot send them to their homes in view of the lockdown,” Sawant said.

Trade Unions Joint Action Committee Maharashtra convener Vishwas Utagi was equally critical of the Prime Minister. He said that there are over two million migrants stuck in Mumbai since the March 25 lockdown, besides 3,000 fishermen stranded at Gholvad in south Gujarat.

“They have no food, no work, no homes, no transport to go home. How can they survive? The Government machinery is not responding to the challenge and this is a human tragedy in other parts of the country also,” Utagi said.

Meanwhile Opposition BJP MP Poonam Mahajan demanded that the State Government take special measures to look after the migrants in Mumbai. “The State Government has failed on this front. That’s why saw chaos in front of the Bandra railway station,” she said.

Slamming the State Government for its failure to enforce prohibitory orders leading to chaos in front of the Bandra railway station, former MP and BJP State vice-president Kirit Somaiya said: “Whatever happened in front of Bandra railway station is matter of deep concern… What about intelligence? The State Government must take this incident seriously and modify its schemes to provide food to the migrants”.