Congress to air documentary on Rahul's interaction with group of migrants

The Congress has made a documentary on Rahul Gandhi's conversation with a group of migrants which will be aired on Saturday.

"A few days ago, I met a group of migrants walking hundreds of KM from their work site in Haryana to their village near Jhansi, UP. Tomorrow, 9 Am onwards, watch their incredible story of grit, determination & survival on," Gandhi tweeted late Friday night.

Gandhi last Saturday had interacted with a group of migrant labourers near the Sukhdev Vihar flyover here and asked them about their problems as they walked home amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown. He sat on the pavement and gave the migrant workers a patient hearing and assured them of help.

For over two months now, since the nationwide lockdown began, India has been shamed by the pictures and videos of lakhs of our migrant men, women and children desperately trying to get back to the safety of their home towns and villages, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said. Former Congress chief Gandhi has been meeting those affected by the crisis, in groups and individually, to offer solidarity and help, he said.

"One such group of migrants that he met, were walking from their worksite in Haryana to their village near Jhansi, in Uttar Pradesh. A distance of over 600 KM. When Shri Rahul Gandhi met up with them, on the Mathura road in Delhi, they had stopped to rest, after continuously walking over 100 KM from their place of work," he said.

"For almost an hour, he listened to their stories - the hardships and discrimination they faced, their reasons for deciding to flee their workplace and why they were forced to walk home to their village, their fears, dreams and aspirations," Surjewala said.

On the request of the group that he met, Gandhi and volunteers from the Indian National Congress, organised transport and the necessary permissions, to get them back safely to their village near Jhansi, Surjewala said. On arrival, they were screened by the local health authorities and put into 21-day home quarantine, which they are at present undergoing, he said. Gandhi's conversation with this group of migrants has now been shaped into a documentary film that will be released on his YouTube channel on Saturday at 9 AM.