This is a time to focus on healing, not foment hate

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s president Raj Thackeray. Pic/Anurag Ahire

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's president Raj Thackeray has blamed the COVID-19 spike in Maharashtra on the unchecked entry of migrant workers, who returned to the industrial state to retain jobs.

He said the state government didn't test the migrants on arrival or didn't count the number of people entering the various cities and towns of Maharashtra.

The MNS honcho claimed that migrants came from states where there was no testing done and labelled those coming into the State as super spreaders.

While Raj may be right about Maharashtra having high numbers as it is an industrial hub and people from elsewhere do arrive here in search of livelihood, it is important that he choose his words wisely and with care.

We have seen how words can wound, foment violence and create deep divisions.

At a time when not just the country, but the world is focused on staying united against the pandemic, we simply do not need rifts but solutions and healing.

We must remember the struggles the migrant population, most of them from North India, had to face some time ago. So, in this case, too, while there may be some truth to people flooding into the state for work and the state reflecting high numbers, let us focus on healing, not hate.

Find answers to how to discipline people. An antidote to the bed shortage, for those afflicted. Better response by the hardworking but impossibly stretched civic authorities. Nipping wide scale corruption that creates quarantine criminals (which simply means those who broke rules and endangered others). It would be much better to concentrate on that today.