The mass exodus of migrants after India went into lockdown in March to fight Covid-19 was because of “fake news”, the government said in Parliament on Tuesday; it also said that there was no data on migrant deaths, therefore “no question of” compensation. The Home Ministry was responding to a written question by Trinamool Congress MP Mala Roy on steps taken to protect migrant labourers before the lockdown was announced on 25 March, the reasons why thousands of labourers ended up walking home and the number of migrants labourers who died on their journey home.