Sonia Gandhi on Monday declared the Congress would bear the travel expenses of the home-bound migrant workers, who were being charged for the train and bus trips, the offer immediately pushing the Centre on the back foot.

Her 8am announcement, riding on the public outrage at the government’s move to extract money from the lockdown-hit poor, forced the Centre to backtrack on the train fares.

Rarely in recent years has the Congress been able to set the agenda in such a manner against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s domineering politics.

Karnataka’s BJP government too had on Sunday made the bus journeys free for three days after the Congress offered a cheque for Rs 1 crore to pay for the migrants’ return home. The free rides have since been extended by two more days. Gujarat too had announced the migrants would have to pay bus fares.

Sonia issued a written statement, followed by an emotional video appeal, driving home the message that the government had betrayed the most vulnerable sections of society during this crisis.

Describing the workers as “nation-builders,” she said: “It pained every citizen to see workers walking for hundreds of kilometres on foot. Leave apart money and other facilities, even food was not provided to them. It touched all of us.”

Sonia’s letter recalled the eruption of grief and frustration in various parts of the country over the plight of the stranded migrants.

“It appeared to us that it is a cry of a family member; a mother, a husband, a son yearning to reach their families, their children. We thought these nation-builders have the first right on the donations of thousands of crores that the government received. This should have been used to take these stranded workers back home. But this did not happen,” she said. She added that the Congress would now ensure they reached home safely.

As the Congress basked in the goodwill its decision had generated on social media, party treasurer Ahmed Patel asked the cash-strapped state units to mobilise resources or get in touch with him if they needed help.

States like Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh — where the Congress is in the government — announced they would bear the travel costs of their returning migrants. Many state Congress chiefs released video messages endorsing the party’s decision and expressing their resolve to foot the bill.

The party mounted a social media campaign to cash in on what it described as a “historic decision” by an Opposition party.

Rahul Gandhi tweeted: “On one hand Railway is extracting fare from the workers stranded in different states; on the other, the Ministry of Railways is donating Rs 151 crore to PM-Cares Fund. Please unravel this mystery.”

By afternoon, the government was under immense pressure. Vague “clarifications” and denials began pouring in.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra and party social media head Amit Malviya claimed the migrants were never meant to pay the fare and tried to shift the blame on Congress-ruled states.

They claimed the railways were bearing 85 per cent of the costs and the states 15 per cent, and that the Congress governments should pay their share like the BJP-ruled states.

Sonia’s letter said: “The central government barely gave a four-hour notice of the lockdown. Workers and migrant labourers were denied the opportunity to return to their homes. Post the partition of 1947, this is the first time India witnessed a tragedy with such a massive human cost as thousands of migrant workers and labourers were forced to walk home several hundred kilometres on foot — without food, without medicines, without money, without transportation, without anything except for the desire to return to their families and loved ones.

“The very thought of their plight is enough to break our hearts as there was also the outpouring of support from fellow Indians for their inspiring resolve.”

She added: “When our government can recognise its responsibility by arranging free air travel for our citizens stranded abroad, when the government can spend nearly Rs 100 crore on transport and food, etc, for just one public programme in Gujarat (a reference to US President Donald Trump’s tour), when the rail ministry has the largesse to donate Rs 151 crore to the PM’s corona fund, then why can’t these essential members of our nation’s fabric be given a fraction of the same courtesy, especially free rail travel, at this hour of acute distress?”

The letter said: “Mahatma Gandhi said the best way to discover yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. We draw inspiration from this in our endeavour to ensure that you reach your families at the earliest.”

Party communications chief Randeep Surjewala and the general secretary in charge of the organisation, K.C. Venugopal, held a media conference to explain how the Congress’s pleas to the Centre to arrange the return of the stranded workers had fallen on deaf ears for over a month.

Surjewala said: “The central government’s behaviour was insensitive and inhumane. The entire country was witness to the tragic spectacle of millions of workers walking back home. The Congress chief felt compelled to offer help in these desperate conditions.”

That a sense of bitterness is slowly invading the Congress resolve to offer constructive help was reflected in Surjewala’s harsh words.

“Once Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that business was in his blood. Who knew his government would turn power into business?” he said.

“Now the government should tell the nation who the PM-Cares Fund will be used for if not the most miserable lot of our workers? Modiji should explain whether the country’s resources are meant to write off loans worth thousands of crores that... Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi owed to the banks or (whether) the poor have a claim on it.”