Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a 10-minute long video message on Wednesday, said the BJP and the Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) government can use its own banners and posters, but the buses should ply to ferry migrant workers as it is the time serve people and not indulge in politics.
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“I want to urge the Chief Minister that our buses will remain parked where they are at the borders [with Rajasthan] till 4 p.m., and it will be 24 hours since they were made available there. If you want to use them, kindly allow permission to us to ply them. If you want, you can paste your posters or banners on them, but kindly allow them to ply so that the migrants can be ferried in them and they reach home safely," said Ms. Vadra.
She, however, made the appeal barely half an hour before the 4 p.m deadline was to expire.
Ms. Vadra, who is the Congress in-charge in U.P., said if the issue of providing buses had not got embroiled in politics, at least 92,000 migrants, who have been forced to walk on the roads without water and food, could have reached home safely.
“This is not the time to play politics. I urge every political party to set aside their political ideology and help people instead,” she said.
Also read: U.P. govt. asks Congress to deliver buses in Ghaziabad, Noida
Addressing migrant workers, she said every Congress member is standing by them and would help them in whatever way possible, including providing food and water.
At an online press conference later, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, “Even now at 6 p.m., we have not heard a word from the UP.. government ... As the head of the State and Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath ji, you have failed to perform the raj dharma .”
Leader of the Congress Legislative Party in the U.P. Assembly, Aradhana Misra, said the buses were waiting at the border until 6 p.m. in the hope that the Chief Minister would relent and give permission.
“Out of sheer arrogance, this government doesn’t want to take Priyanka ji’s proposal forward,” she said.
