Muzaffarpur, May 27: A toddler's vain attempt to wake up his dead mother from eternal sleep on a railway platform in Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Wednesday presented the most poignant picture of the massive migrant tragedy unfolding across several states.
A video tweeted by Sanjay Yadav, an aide to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, shows the child walking unsteadily up to his mother's body, tugging at the blanket placed over her, and when failing to wake her up, covering his own head with it.
As the mother still lay still, he wobbles away from her, announcements continuing in the background about the arrival and departure of trains that would bring in tens of thousands of people in a rush to get away from hunger and hardship they face in large cities that could sustain them no more.
"This small child doesn't know that the bedsheet with which he is playing is the shroud of his mother who has gone into eternal sleep. This mother died of hunger and thirst after being on a train for four days. Who is responsible for these deaths on trains? Shouldn't the opposition ask uncomfortable questions?" tweeted Yadav.
However, police had a different story to tell.
Ramakant Upadhyay, the Dy SP of the Government Railway Police in Muzaffarpur, said the incident occurred on May 25 when the migrant woman was on way to Muzaffarpur from Ahmedabad by a Shramik Special train.
He told reporters the woman, who was accompanied by her sister and brother-in-law, had died on the Madhubani bound train.
"My sister-in-law died suddenly on the train. We did not face any problem getting food or water," the officer said, quoting the deceased's brother-in-law who he did not name.
He said on getting information, poice brought down the body and sent it for postmortem.
Citing the brother-in-law of the deceased, Upadhyay said she was aged 35 years and was undergoing treatment for "some disease" for the last one year in Ahmedabad. "She was also mentally unstable," he said.
When persistently queried about the cause of death, he said,"Only doctors can tell".
A massive exodus of migrant workers is on in several parts of the country, unprecedented in magnitude since Partition.
The humanitarian crisis still unfolding on highways and railway platforms has shone light on disturbing tales of entire families walking hundreds of kilometres with little children on foot in a seemingly endless march to escape hunger.
People have been found travelling on trucks and in the hollow of concrete mixing plants, and in many cases, dying from hunger and exhaustion before reaching their destinations.
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Let this hate monger worship his Master in jail for years. Its strange that whenever any of its members are caught red handed for any wrong doing, bjp immediately says that he is not a member of bjp. What a shame. Till its members do wrong things without notice they are good members and if caught for wrong doing they are not members. This is a lesson to these members who trust bjp leaders. Please remember that bjp leaders are using you for political gain only and none will help you if got arrested. they will use you to create probloems in society, rioting, molesing, setting fire to private _+_ Govt properties, lynching, murder etc etc but they will keep themselves away from you once yu are caught. None of the family members of these bjp leaders is in front during riot and disturbance. They will ask yu to lead the disturbance and keep themself in their homes. You will be the one to suffer later. Hence,. please take care of yourself and dont trust bjp leaders who are misusing you. In this case, Yogi Surajnath is an active member of bjp and was asked to post wrong comments about Priyanka Gandhi. At the end, bjp is not ready to accept him as their member. Dear Surajnath, now you will suffer and none will help you.
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