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Karnataka was wrong in treating migrants as bonded labourers

The Karnataka government’s U-turn on cancelling special trains to transport stranded migrants home suggests that better sense has prevailed over distorted priorities. The state has, however, sought only 13 trains to various states between May 8 and 13, which can reportedly transport only about 13,000 migrants, a fraction of the workers in the state. This amounts to little more than tokenism in the face of widespread criticism of its earlier actions. It cannot be absolved of its earlier actions, nor of deploying the full force of its security establishment to prevent them from leaving because of the possibility of a