Migrants' safety govt's priority, all states did good work: Shah

BHUBANESWAR: Asserting that the safety of migrants during the COVID-19 crisis was the central government's priority, Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said it might have made some mistakes but its commitment was absolute and slammed the opposition, asking what did it do for the people during the pandemic.

Speaking of the migrants' plight during a 'virtual rally' for Odisha, he said all states have done a good job to fight the pandemic and worked with the Centre in a joint effort to take care of migrant workers whose pain had caused anguish to everyone.

"I want to ask some people with distorted mindset from the opposition .... We might have lacked somewhere but our commitment was absolute. We might have made mistakes and fallen short to some extent. We might not have done something but what did you do," he said.

Opposition parties have slammed the Modi government's handling of the pandemic, especially on hardships faced by the migrants due to extended nationwide lockdown.

Taking an apparent dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his interaction with different personalities on issues pertaining to the pandemic, the senior BJP leader said mockingly that somebody speaks in English to people abroad to fight the Coronavirus.

"You give an account to the people of the country of what you have done. I am here to give an account. The Modi government announced a package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore for 60 crore people as soon as COVID-19 broke out," Shah said.

So many disasters occurred in this country and the Congress did nothing but "interviews", he said.

The Home Minister emphasized that over 1.25 crore migrants were transported safely to their homes by the government's initiative.

The Centre started running Shramik Special trains from May 1 to take migrants home, he said.

Under Modi, the country fought COVID-19 like "one nation, one people, one spirit", Shah said.

He said that the prime minister has done everything possible to fight the pandemic due to which the disease is contained to a great extent in India, and the country is in much better shape than many other nations.

He said the Prime Minister had held at least five rounds of video-conference with all the chief ministers cutting across party lines to take suggestions and all the states have done good work in the battle against COVID-19.

The senior BJP leader said the central government sought suggestions from all states; be it Odisha, West Bengal or Kerala, and rose above any partisan biases in this joint battle against the disease.

Both the Centre and the states have joined hands to fight the pandemic, Shah said adding the Prime Minister's call for the Janata Curfew and the overwhelming response of the people from across the nation was remarkable.