The most accurate test for determining a political leader’s competence is a crisis situation. Crises bring the best out of statesmen while the uninspiring ones chicken out at the last minute. A strong case in point being the “migrant” crisis that got triggered in the National Capital in backdrop of a nationwide lockdown to break the chain of the novel Coronavirus.
Delhi and Noida bear a stark resemblance in terms of the migrant labourers, construction workers, etc. In fact, the latter being a new-age IT city has greater proportion of construction workers and other such migrant labourers, but there is a huge difference in the manner in which Delhi CM Kejriwal, the self-proclaimed anarchist, and UP Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath handled the issue of migrant crisis following a 21-day lockdown that had to be implemented in face of the Coronavirus outbreak in India.
Delhi has hit headlines for all the wrong reasons- announcements and rumours about the arrival of UP Roadways buses mobilising crowds running into lakhs at the Anand Vihar ISBT (Delhi-UP border), 570 DTC buses dropping travellers at the Delhi-UP border in the middle of a virtual apocalypse, allegations of water and electricity supply to the migrants being disconnected, and reports of migrants suffering from hunger and lack of shelter.
Such has been the level of mismanagement that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has been constrained to initiate action against four Delhi government officials for dereliction of duty.
#BIG: MHA orders disciplinary action against 4 bureaucrats of Delhi Govt for Dereliction of Duty regarding containment of #COVID19. Adl.Chief Secretary, Transport Department, Suspended with immediate effect. Adl. Chief Secretary, Home & Land Buildings Dept, Show Cause Notice. pic.twitter.com/zjllaCMmgK
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) March 29, 2020
On the other hand, the Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has left no stone unturned in expeditiously solving the migrant crisis. This is the reason why Noida has not witnessed the kind of mass migration that Delhi witnessed. While Kejriwal government literally force people to run away towards their hometowns in Uttar Pradesh, Yogi government has come to the rescue of all migrant workers.
At the outset, the UP government, postponed the rent for the ongoing month in view of the ongoing lockdown so that migrant labourers didn’t have to worry about losing their accommodation, while migrant labourers in Delhi were rendered homeless in face of the lockdown as the Kejriwal government did not even care to consider passing such an order.
The Noida DM tweeted, “Order by which Landlords in Gautambuddhanagar can take rent from workers ( tenants) only after a month. No exodus of workers on rent ground will be allowed in present circumstances. Please ensure and cooperate.”
There were reports of migrants from Noida getting forced to come down on roads and depart towards their hometowns, but the authorities intervened and avoided an exodus-like situation just in the nick of time.
Order by which Landlords in Gautambuddhanagar can take rent from workers ( tenants) only after a month. No exodus of workers on rent ground will be allowed in present circumstances. Please ensure and cooperate. pic.twitter.com/ucn5I0oe68
— DM G.B. Nagar/NOIDA (@dmgbnagar) March 28, 2020
Kejriwal, on the other hand, asked the landlords not to harass the tenants and assured that Delhi government would pay the rent if need be only last night, after the damage had already been done on Saturday.
Order by which Landlords in Gautambuddhanagar can take rent from workers ( tenants) only after a month. No exodus of workers on rent ground will be allowed in present circumstances. Please ensure and cooperate. pic.twitter.com/ucn5I0oe68
— DM G.B. Nagar/NOIDA (@dmgbnagar) March 28, 2020
Moreover, the Yogi government decision by taking over the Jaypee Yamuna Expressway township was its carefully planned strategy to provide food and shelter to the migrant labourers, in line with the Government of India directives.
Kejriwal government had unsurprisingly also failed in discharging its duties of lodging the migrant workers and feeding them properly which could have helped in checking the sudden surge in reverse migration from the National Capital at a time when social distancing is the need of the hour.
Whoa! Notification here on @CeoNoida taking over Jaypee Yamuna Expressway township to accommodate migrant workers during the #CoronaLockdown. pic.twitter.com/96h97JRXgy
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) March 29, 2020
Centre takes note of the exodus of migrant workers. Says States have been asked to enforce lockdown strictly. And that those found travelling during this period will be subject to minimum 14 days of quarantine in government quarantine facilities. pic.twitter.com/OVcoA4sA0W
— Vasudha Venugopal (@Vasudha156) March 29, 2020
Beyond Noida too, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has dealt with the crisis brilliantly. Literally leading from the front, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister came out to welcome the migrants reaching Lucknow while Kejriwal made heartfelt appeals to migrant labourers on Twitter after chasing them out of the National Capital.
In fact, what the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) Managing Director Rajasekhar managed is no mean feat. The Uttar Pradesh Roadways had to evacuate the migrant labourers from Delhi, while the Delhi government was not at all cooperative and only aggravating the precarious situation by putting bottlenecks in the way of Uttar Pradesh government. It was almost as if the evacuation operations were being carried out on foreign soil.
https://twitter.com/ThePoojaSingh1/status/1244204027845292032?s=20
दिल्ली से अपने गाँव जा रहे लोगों से मेरी अपील। pic.twitter.com/VTOGZVZFkh
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) March 29, 2020
If the Kaushambi Bus Stand has been successfully evacuated, it is all because of the proactive approach adopted by the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Now, the evacuation operations enter the next stage.
DM Ghaziabad states that the Kaushambi Bus Depot has been cleared and all those stranded have been sent to their homes in UP. #CoronaLockdown @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/If2rkryJug
— Amil Bhatnagar (@AmilwithanL) March 29, 2020
While an anarchist has diverted a ticking time bomb towards the most populous state of India that can cause an exponential rise in the Coronavirus cases, the Yogi is prepared having already enacted makeshift screening facilities. This was easily the biggest crisis since the Coronavirus outbreak, and as the anarchist chickened out, the Yogi rose to the occasion rescuing lakhs of migrants.
