Rahul Gandhi meets migrants, Congress says police tried to detain them

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“Rahul Gandhi met some labourers, spoke to them, and left. Local police were present and there were some Congress workers too, who wanted to take the workers with them in a car. We told them that everyone can’t be put in one car and that they have to follow social distancing norms. They got more cars and the labourers left in those cars,” DCP (Southeast) RP Meena said.

Police also shared videos of migrant workers getting into cars and being driven away.

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Congress workers, however, claimed police had first tried to take the migrant workers away in a bus.

“After Rahul Gandhi left, police came and asked the people who were speaking to us to get into a police bus. Messages were sent out to party people and cars were arranged and the workers were taken where they wanted to go,” claimed a party official.

The pain of the people can only be understood by leaders who care. Here are a few glimpses of Shri @RahulGandhi interacting with migrant labourers in Delhi.#RahulCaresForIndia pic.twitter.com/wo0ULmpT7L

— Congress (@INCIndia) May 16, 2020

Rahul met with a group of people for around an hour on the footpath at Mathura Road. “He had an impromptu hour-long meeting with a group of 20 migrants, including women and children, walking from their work site near Ambala to their village near Jhansi — a distance of over 700 kilometres… While adhering strictly to the law, at the request of Mr Gandhi, volunteers from the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee stepped up to help the group get back to their village,” the Congress leader’s office said.