Coming down heavily on the Gujarat government over the recent spate of violence in the state against migrants from UP and Bihar, the Congress on Tuesday alleged that the state government was unwilling to prevent violence against the people from the two states.

It also criticized Uttar Pradesh and Bihar governments for giving a “clean chit” to the Vijay Rupani-led Gujarat administration.

Questioning the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue, the Congress also demanded an apology from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for claiming there were no attacks on the migrants from Uttar Pradesh in Gujarat.

“The situation in Gujarat is extremely volatile. It seems the Gujarat government is both incapable and unwilling to stop these incidents which have now spread to central Gujarat,” said Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari.

“Ridiculousness and preposterousness have touched a new high. To please the Prime Minister, the Chief Ministers of UP and Bihar, instead of empathising with their people and trying to prevail upon the central and Gujarat governments to act, are in an overdrive giving a clean chit to the Gujarat government,” said Tewari.

He was referring to UP CM’s recent assertions that there was not a “single incident of attack” on the migrants and that there were merely rumours spread by those who were jealous of Gujarat.

Tewari also referred to Bihar Additional Director General of Police SK Singhal’s remarks that migrant workers were not fleeing Gujarat, rather returning to their home state to celebrate festivals.

“People are fleeing Gujarat in fear and Adityanath claims no such violence. What is more shocking is Singhal saying they are coming back because of festivals,” said Tewari, claiming that over 50,000 migrant workers have fled Gujarat since the violence broke out a few days back.

He demanded Adityanath to publicly apologise for his insensitivity and urged Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to take strong action against Singhal.

Hitting out at PM Modi, Tewari questioned his “deafening” silence on the issue.

(With agency inputs)