Accused by the BJP of instigating attacks against migrant North India workers, Congress MLA Alpesh Thakor on Tuesday claimed that labourers belonging to UP and Bihar left the State for their Chhath Puja festival — a bizarre claim since this festival is weeks away.
Denying Thakor's claims, Mahadev Jha, president of Bihar Gujarat Maitri Sangh, said that in the past four days nearly 1 lakh labourers have left the State out of fear of being attacked. Jha maintained that generally the workers would go to their States after taking Diwali bonus.
The exodus of Hindi-speaking workers, mainly belonging to Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, continued on Tuesday despite the arrest of 530 persons for attacking migrant labourers working in highly industrialised districts of Gujarat.
Jha and other leaders from North Indian community settled in Gujarat met Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and demanded stern action against those elements who are spreading terror amongst the migrant labourers.
For his part, Minister of State for Home Pradeep Sinh Jadeja claimed that the State Government was monitoring the situation closely and as a result of quick action taken by the police there was not a single incident of attack on migrants over the past 72 hours.
Not a single person responsible for spreading hatred among migrant and local people would be spared, assured Jadeja hinting that as many as 20 persons were arrested under the IT Act. Those arrested included Thakor Sena's media convenor Rahul Parmar.
"Names of the leaders would be announced in couple of days. Analysis of their call details is going on," he said adding that as of now 61 cases of attack on migrant labourers were registered. Lambasting Alpesh Thakor, Gujarat's Deputy CM Nitin Patel said that the Congress MLA was responsible for instigating his supporters to attack on non-Gujarati labourers over the issue of rape on 14-month-old girl. Gujarat BJP president Jitu Vaghani too came down heavily on Opposition party for disturbing peace in the state in the name of regions.
Talking to media persons, Thakor said that the ruling BJP was playing dirty politics against him as he never appealed his supporters to attack the migrant workers. "If such kind of politics will continue against me, I would not hesitate to resign as MLA. If I am guilty, put me behind the bars," he said.
Meanwhile, in a letter to Gujarat Chief Minister, the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and industry (GCCI) chief, Jaimin Vasa, urged for the safety of migrant workers, who are working in industries across the State.