The episode involving hundreds of people gathering at Bandra station in Mumbai on Tuesday in complete defiance of the nationwide lockdown and demanding they be allowed to take trains back to their native places was not a ‘spontaneous reaction’ but a ‘conspiracy’ and ‘pre-planned, sinister move’, NewsMobile Editor-in-Chief Saurabh Shukla said today.
“At a time when India was trying to bounce back, at a time when India has made all out efforts to contain coronavirus…both the Centre and the state governments have been working hard… the idea was to hit out at India’s financial capital so that India does not recover from this coronavirus outbreak,” Shukla said while participating in a debate with Arnab Goswami on Republic TV.
“Even after the rest of the country bounces back, the whole idea was that they will mount a conspiracy of this kind to make sure that India’s financial capital is hit. This is conspiracy. This is not a spontaneous reaction. Anybody who wants to go back home would carry some piece of luggage. This is a pre-planned and a sinister move,” Shukla added.
The Mumbai police has registered three FIRs—including one against a journalist working with a Marathi news channel– in the matter and has arrested one person so far.