A major controversy broke out on Sunday over Sonu Sood’s recent efforts to help migrant workers reach their respective States from Maharashtra, with the ruling Shiv Sena accusing the Opposition BJP of using the Bollywood actor as a “face” to project a picture that the Uddhav Thackeray Government had failed in helping the stranded migrant workers.
In his Sunday column ‘Rokhtok’ in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna, Shiv Sena’s MP and Sanjay Raut – who is the newspaper’s Executive Editor – said: “Using Sonu Sood as a face, a political outfit in Maharashtra is attempting to project a picture that the Thackeray Government has failed. To an extent, the outfit has succeeded in painting Sonu Sood as Rs Mahabali’ , Rs Bahubali’ and Rs Super hero’. Some sections of the BJP have adopted Sonu in an effort to win over the migrant workers”.
Raut, in his headlined “Ekta Sonu Sood Khara”, (Only Sonu Sood is real), also slammed the actor by saying that as an actor, the latter was used to taking money to deliver dialogues and he was being used by the BJP.
“The Maharashtra government had set up a special cell to transport migrant workers to their native states. At that time, a campaign was run – under which the migrant workers were told – those wanting to go back home should send a message on a particular number with your mobile number. Sonu Sood will send you home. For this, a huge political machinery was put on the job from behind. A picture was sought to be created to project that the Thackeray government is doing nothing but it is Sonu Sood who is doing everything,” Raut wrote. “At one stage during the Corona crisis, the BJP was fighting a battle for its own existence. Because of its continued criticism of the Thackeray government, the BJP’s credibility had gone down in the minds of the people. At the same time, there was considerable anger about the Modi government in the minds of the migrants. But, in
Maharashtra, the BJP put the Thackeray government in the dock. Making use of the confusion, has the BJP made Sonu Sood wear the mask of a great social worker?,” Raut asked.
Sood has come in for praise from various quarters in recent efforts to reach the stranded migrant workers to their respective states from Mumbai. So much so that Sood met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on May 30 at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai and briefed the Governor about his ongoing work to provide food and help the migrant people to reach their home states The Governor applauded Sood for his good work and assured him of his fullest support in his efforts.
“We would like to know as to what kind of machinery that Sonu had to reach thousands of migrant workers to their homes.... He is the president of Rashtriya Banjara Seva Sangh. He is just a face. Who is behind him? To that extend that the Maharashtra
Governor calls Sonu to Raj Bhavan, seeks information about the work he is doing, appreciates him and offers the actor fullest from Raj Bhavan,” Raut said, wondering as to why the actor was getting such preferential treatment at a when doctors, nurses, police personnel, civic body workers and NGOs were doing so much work to battle Covid-19 in the state.
“I would not be surprised if Sonu’s name figures in Prime Minister’s Man Ki Baat. I would also not be surprised if Sood meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi. I would also not be surprised if he will move around in MumbaI, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar as a star campaigner of the BJP,” Raut wrote.
Raut also wondered how Sonu Sood managed to send 177 girls, stuck in Kerala’s Ernakulam, in a special plane to Bhubaneshwar in Odisha. The Sena MP alleged that since Sood was not able to find a plane in Kerala, he got a special plane flown from Bengaluru to Kochi to ferry the standed girls to Odisha. He wanted to know if for Sood to pull this off this feat without political, government and administrative support.
“I read somewhere that Sood reached nearly 1200 migrant workers to their homes in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh... There was a time, when the West Bengal chief minister made it clear not to send many of its migrant workers back home, while UP chief minister said that not to send migrant workers to his state, unless they had medical certificates. That being the case, where did the migrant workers go?. How could so many buses be organised to ferry workers?. Was Sood running a parallel government?,” Raut asked.
In a related development, leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Pravin Darekar of the BJP said: “Criticising Sonu Sood is nothing but an effort to remain in limelight. By saying something else, he ( Raut) is trying to shift the focus from the Corona crisis. We need to appreciate the good work (done by Sonu Sood”.