Photo Soure: Former Punjab CS Sarvesh Kaushal's X account
Former Punjab CS Sarvesh Kaushal on anti-migrant pitch in Punjab: "This hypocrisy is not only unreasonable; it is also unjust"
Babusahi Bureau
Chandigarh, November 17, 2024: Amid the ongoing debate over anti-migrant sentiments in Punjab and the growing concern over the natives reducing to minority, former Chief Secretary Punjab Sarvesh Kaushal has expressed that such opposition IS not only unreasonable but also unjust.
In a note addressing fellow Punjabis, Sarvesh Kaushal calls for self-introspection on the topic, stating that migration is a shared human experience and a fundamental part of human history.
Read the complete note by Chief Secretary Punjab Sarvesh Kaushal to Punjabis
An appeal to the rationality of my fellow Punjabis: It is time we confront an uncomfortable truth. Many of Punjabis who have willingly migrated across India and the world, in search of better opportunities, prosperity, and a brighter future, now feel surprised over opposition to the very same migration when it involves non-Punjabis.
This hypocrisy is not only unreasonable; it is also unjust. For generations, we have traveled to distant lands—whether across India, to the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, or beyond, or to countries like the UK, Canada, or the United States. We left our homes to escape hardship, to seek work, to build a future where none existed. Therefore today, how can we deny the same opportunities to others.
We stand in opposition to the migration of people seeking better lives, just as we did. We forget that our own people have once been migrants—and still moving in huge numbers to new places for survival, for work, for prosperity. Do we not see the contradiction? Do we not recognize the irony in denying others what we ourselves have sought and found? Migration is not the problem.
It is a fundamental part of human history. Migrants find their place when the locals refuse to, or are incapable of, doing their own work. Let’s self-introspect. Are we ready to do all the jobs which migrants do in Punjab? Let us not be blinded by parochialism, but recognize that migration has been a shared human experience, and flows from the economic principles of mobility of labour as a factor of production.
Only then will we be able to build a truly just and inclusive society. And last but not the least - what if our sentiment rebounds from where we are happily settled after migrating from Punjab. Are we provoking retaliation? It’s time to self-introspect.