OPINION | Maha Kumbh stampede: Did this happen because of VIP culture?

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who had been toiling hard for the last several months to make the Maha Kumbh a grand success, appeared before media with his eyes full of tears.

More than 10 crore devotees took a holy dip at the Maha Kumbh in Sangam, but the joie de vivre was marred by a post-midnight tragedy, when hordes of people trampled on devotees sleeping on the ground after breaking police barricades. Thirty people died and more than 60 people were injured.  36 of those injured are undergoing treatment in hospital.

UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who had been toiling hard for the last several months to make the Maha Kumbh a grand success, appeared before media with his eyes full of tears. Police and health workers acted promptly, called in ambulances and created a green corridor to take those injured to the hospital.

The tragedy is indeed saddening. Yogi was in the control room post-midnight, taking  updates as contours of the tragedy unfolded. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Yogi four times over the phone and took updates. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw arranged special trains for ferrying the devotees who had taken a dip in Sangam. For the first time, the major ‘akhadas’ of sadhus decided to allow commoners to take a dip first and then took their holy dip called ‘Amrit Snan’. Lakhs of devotees were meanwhile stranded in Varanasi, Jaunpur, Pratpgarh, Fatehpur and other towns of UP, since entry of vehicles into Prayagraj was prohibited in view of the huge influx.

A three-member judicial inquiry commission has been set up to probe the circumstances leading to the stampede. It will be headed by Justice Harsh Kumar, former Director General of Police V K Gupta and retired IAS officer DK Singh. This tragedy that took place on the auspicious occasion of Mauni Amavasya is really heart wrenching. The issue is not the number of people who died or were injured in the crush. A single devotee losing his life is saddening.

It is a fact that a large number of devotees had reached the Sangam before the auspicious time, in order to be the first to take the holy dip. Most of them were sleeping on the ground near Sangam when the stampede took place. Those who broke the police barriers and ran towards the Sangam, did not bother that they were trampling on other pilgrims who were sleeping.

I consider this a serious lapse on part of the administration. It failed to anticipate such a situation. CCTV cameras were working, drones were available, thousands of policemen had been deployed, Special Task Force, National Disaster Response Force, National Security Guards were available, but nobody anticipated such a situation. But to say that the stampede took place because of mismanagement will be doing an injustice to the thousands of policemen and personnel who worked day and night at the Maha Kumbh.

Crores of pilgrims from all over the country descended for Maha Kumbh after watching media reports about massive preparations made for providing sleeping areas, clean toilets, medicines and hospitals. Nobody imagined that good arrangements could create a different type of problem.

Those who took a holy dip at Sangam, stayed put in the Maha Kumbh area, unwilling to leave immediately. They wanted to watch the famous processions of Sadhus, Shankaracharyas, particularly Naga ascetics, going for their bath at the Sangam. They had smart phones with them, ready to record the visuals of sadhus taking their bath. It was only then that the authorities realized that controlling the pilgrims could become difficult. Barricades were broken and the crowds trampled upon sleeping devotees.

I would like to praise the shankaracharyas and mahamandaleshwars present at Maha Kumbh, who issued videos at night, appealing to people to take their holy dip at any bathing ghat of river Ganga, and refrain from congregating at the Sangam. Secondly, the shankaracharyas decided to delay their bathing procession due to the midnight stampede and allowed common people to take their dip first.

The quick arrangements made by Yogi Adityanath, coupled with close coordination between the Centre and state authorities, showed results on the ground immediately. The enthusiasm and fervour among the lakhs of devotees returned.    Since the ‘akhadas’ of sadhus had delayed their bathing procession, lakhs of people went up to the Sangam and took their holy dip, without any fear. India TV reporters met people from as far away as Karnataka, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Assam, who had come with their families for the holy dip on Mauni Amavasya.  

It was a beautiful sight with  shankaracharyas, acharyas, maha mandaleshwars and other sadhus performing their “Amrit Snan” after the crowd of devotees had left. All of us should congratulate them for displaying sagacity in handling the situation.

On the other hand,  leaders from the opposition, as is their wont, tried to make the stampede a political issue. Akhilesh Yadav, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Mayawati and leaders from Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena criticized Yogi government for the tragedy. Most of the political leaders alleged that the tragedy could have been avoided, if local authorities were not preoccupied because of what they called, “VIP culture”. Naturally, people who saw VVIPs taking their bath at Sangam with ease, will believe this. But, to link the midnight tragedy with the VIP syndrome will not be correct.

There was a complete ban on VIP movement during Mauni Amavasya and all VIP passes for Mauni Amavasya had been cancelled.  This is an old protocol. Experts recalled when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister in 1954, nearly 1,000 people lost their lives in a big stampede on the day of “Shahi Snan”. Soon after that tragedy 71 years ago, a protocol was enforced according to which no VIP movement would be allowed on “Shahi Snan” day at the Kumbh Mela. Anyway, such a historical background and explanation can now be termed as political. It has nothing to do with those families who have lost their near and dear ones.

We can only hope that the injured devotees recover soon. We can only appeal to the government to be more careful while making arrangements. We can pray to Maa Ganga to give strength to the devotees for bearing their loss.

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