No edifice of modern India anywhere across the country, be it the new parliamentary building, the huge hotels, railway and road network, the tunnels, the industrial and agricultural products, will be possible without the hardworking hands of the “migrants” from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Yet they become the target of abuse and persecution almost in every state whether Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat and now Punjab. No voices are raised in their support.
About a week ago a young boy, aged five, was brutally sodomised and murdered allegedly by a migrant labourer in Hoshiarpur. The accused has since been arrested. The heinous incident has sent shock waves across Punjab. At the same time, it has led to widespread anger against the migrant population, which mainly hails from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. There are an estimated 40 lakh migrants living in Punjab. They include about 20 lakh migrant workers and their families.
The wave of anger and resentment has spread across the state. Several panchayats in villages have passed resolutions asking the “undocumented” migrants to leave. Newspaper reports recently suggested that some “native activists” were forcibly trying to push out the migrant labourers who had sought shelter in some religious places.
While the macabre incident in Hoshiarpur triggered the resentment against the migrants, there is a subtle and simmering resentment being fanned against them by certain elements in Punjab. They interestingly include the leaders like Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who is a Congress legislator and also the Chairman of the All India Kisan Congress, the farmers department of the Indian National Congress.
Besides, several radical social media influencers are also campaigning against the migrants on multiple channels and platforms.
Khaira had also moved a bill in the Punjab Legislative Assembly seeking to bring in a law that bars non-Punjabis from owning immovable assets in Punjab and also taking government jobs in the state on the pattern of Himachal Pradesh.
As the sense of fear generated among the migrant labourers, many of them have started moving back to their home states. This has raised alarm bells among the industrialists and the agriculturalists. Punjab’s industry and agriculture depend mainly on the migrant workers. Various industrial associations have raised the matter with the government also. But nothing much has been done to restore the confidence of the migrant labourers. More so, with the paddy harvesting season already having arrived, there is a huge shortage of labourers.
Except for the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, who made it categorically clear that the migrants had a great contribution towards Punjab’s economy, no prominent politician from any political party, whether the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, the principal opposition party the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Shiromani Akali Dal, offered any support to the beleaguered migrants which could assure them of safety and security. They were completely left abandoned.
All the political parties, without any exception, try their best to get as many migrants enrolled as voters in their respective assembly segments in the hope that they will vote for them. Most of them actually do vote for the leader who gets them enrolled. The voter identity card not only entitles them to vote, but is considered a strong proof of identity and an important document for other benefits.
While they do get enrolled as voters, but when it came to taking a stand in their support and defence, every politician and every political leader preferred to keep quiet. The Chief Minister Mann was the only exception to defend their right to stay and work in Punjab.
The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, which normally takes a lead under such situations to appeal for calm and defend the rights of people who it feels are victimised, also remained quiet this time. This was not the case earlier. When Kashmiri students were targeted in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370, the then acting Akal Takhat Jathedar, Giani Harpreet Singh, had issued a categorical and unequivocal statement in their support. Giani Harpreet is currently heading the rebel Akali Dal. However, he also preferred to observe silence on the issue of migrants.
There was a silver line however. While the politicians and political parties preferred silence, various farmers’ organisations and a number of intellectuals came out in strong support of the migrants. While there is a sustained campaign still being carried out on multiple social media platforms against the migrants, there are several social media users who have been strongly defending the migrants, arguing that the entire population cannot be victimided for the crime of one person, who has since been arrested.
More and more Punjabis would need to raise their voice against the victimisation of all the migrants just because one migrant committed a heinous and unforgivable crime. While the culprit deserves to be hanged from the lamppost, those who are here in search of work and jobs must not be targeted.
Most of the Punjabis have always stood for the righteous causes and have come to the defence of the weak and those tormented. And such voices are being heard amidst the shrill against the migrants.
Political parties and leaders must show some spine and moral courage and come out in support of the migrants and assure them that they will be safe and secure in Punjab. After all, it is these same politicians who facilitate their inclusion in the electoral rolls in anticipation of votes and actually get their votes also. Now is the payback time and the leaders must not back out.
While there is no proper or documented survey that would link the rise of crime in Punjab to the influx of migrant population, a narrative to the contrary is being built to suggest that migrants are involved in crime. Barring some rarest of the rare incidents like the one in Hoshiarpur, the migrant population from other states living in Punjab has been overwhelmingly peaceful, sincere and hardworking.
A heinous crime committed by one of the migrants must not be held against the entire population.
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