Maha Kumbh stampede: What actually needs doing? Leaders speak up

The BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government remains tight-lipped about the death toll from the stampede at the Maha Kumbh yesterday (the intervening night of 28 and 29 January), or even the exact number of people injured and receiving care at local hospitals. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah have acknowledged casualties in their condolence messages.

The lack of statistics and chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s appeals to pilgrims to visit the closest ghat for the same punya rather than aim for Sangam ghat alone — without sharing any details of what the administration may be doing to mitigate the mayhem or help those affected — only add to misgivings as crores continue to throng the site for the holy 'Amrit Snan' or 'Shahi Snan', as it is being touted by the State lately.

Opposition leaders have, not unexpectedly, laid into the governing party — but also gone on to recommend several practical measures that should be applied immediately for better management of the rest of the pilgrimage period.

LoP (Leader of the Opposition) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi spoke for many citizens probably, when he blamed the 'VIP culture' for allowing this mayhem earlier today. He suggested more focus and efforts to ensure logistical support for the 'common people' instead of directing efforts towards 'celebrity bathers' might have avoided this situation.

'Mismanagement, lack of organisation and the administration's special focus on VIP movement instead of common devotees are responsible for this tragic incident,' he said. With a lot of time remaining until the conclusion of the Maha Kumbh, with many more 'Mahasnans' to take place, he urged the administration to make amends and mend their ways forthwith for a better experience for devotees.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, echoed Gandhi's indictment of the VIP culture, saying, 'Half-baked arrangements, VIP movement, paying more attention to self-promotion than to management and sheer mismanagement are responsible for this. Despite spending thousands of crores of rupees, the state of the arrangements is condemnable.'

He too urged the expansion of food, accommodation, first aid facilities and space for movement of common devotees while curbing VIPs instead — something, he declared, even the ascetics and sages present wish for.

The official Congress handle at 9 a.m. had already taken note of the 'many deaths' and suggested concrete steps to implement:

• The government should provide proper and better treatment to the injured devotees.

• The bodies of the deceased should be handed over to their relatives and arrangements should be made by the authorities to take them home.

• The arrangements for the Maha Kumbh should be improved so that no further such accidents occur in future.

• There should be arrangements for easy and safe bathing for all devotees.

‘In this hour of grief, may God give strength to the bereaved families and speedy recovery to the injured,’ it added.

Congress workers are requested to provide all possible help to the victims.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav went one better, asking for the Army to be called in forthwith.

‘In order to reinstate the faith of the visiting sages and larger community of devotees coming to the Maha Kumbh in the administration, it is necessary that the management and logistics associated with it be immediately handed over to the Army.

‘Now that the truth behind the claims of 'world-class system' has been exposed, those who were making these claims and spreading false propaganda should take moral responsibility for the people killed in this accident and resign from their posts,’ he said.

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also called for:

• - air ambulances to get the seriously injured to hospitals with better healthcare immediately

• immediate identification and handover of bodies to next of kin, with help to take their remains back home

• work to urgently reunite those separated from their families

• increase surveillance by helicopter

• maintain the tradition of 'Amrit Snan' on Mauni Amavasya, ensuring proper management of logistics alongside relief work (this last, now, is seemingly what the state government has decided to do, after the Akharas initially declaring the Amrit Snan postponed to Vasant Panchami).

Yadav also echoed the appeal from the current chief minister for the pilgrims exercise restraint and patience as they complete their sojourn at Sangam.

He added that the government should learn a lesson from today's incident and make additional arrangements for accommodation, food, water and other facilities for the devotees.

In a later post, he highlighted a news report of a 10 kilometre traffic jam on the Bundelkhand Expressway. ‘Crores of people are stranded on the roads due to the closure of Maha Kumbh Mela area; in urban areas of Prayagraj; in public transport depots and stations; at the borders of Prayagraj city and on the roads leading to Prayagraj from various cities,’ he said, urging help from the administration for the crores of people stuck in lakhs of vehicles en route Sangam.

‘The government should immediately activate itself, considering it a disaster born out of administrative negligence rather than a normal rescue,’ he wrote on X, insisting that relief in the form of food and water at least must reach all devotees stranded on the way before sunset and that they should be assured that the state government and the central government would make arrangements so that everyone reaches their destinations safely.

‘Those who are missing shall be found and taken to their homes safely,' he demanded again, adding, 'Out of respect for the dead, all ceremonies, festivities and welcome programmes should be cancelled.'

That the stampede, which took place between 1 and 2 a.m. of 29 January, claimed lives is clearly an open secret despite the UP government's reticence.

BSP leader Mayawati and the Shiv Sena handle early today had already tweeted condolence messages long before the official Modi and Shah admissions.

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had also already echoed Akhilesh Yadav, who is an INDIA bloc ally, and prayed for the goddess Ganga itself to protect the pilgrims and mourned the 'large number' who were deceased, while urging the state and central government to action.

Gandhi Vadra's post was almost simultaneous with the prime minister's, where he acknowledged people had lost loved ones — and made a point of saying he was in touch with the UP government... but said naught of death tolls, outreach, compensation.

Home minister Amit Shah, speaking up a little later, had nothing new to say, no further assurances either.

Most damning has been a video shared by the Samajwadi Party's media cell, in which allegedly an officer in the Yogi dispensation speaks of a stampede being imminent.

'Was CM Yogi trying to clear this place for a VIP BJP leader or the family of a BJP leader to bathe?' the party asks. 'Did the local workers wake up devotees from a deep sleep in the middle of the night and scare them about a stampede, actually precipitating the very thing?'

'All this has happened due to the VIP arrangements of BJP leaders and the BJP. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath is directly responsible for this,' the message concludes.

The Indian media, too, has been curiously silent. While official figures are doubtless absent, even speculation from correspondents present seem thin on the ground despite the huge media presence that has been beaming videos and sending out viral photos of 'naga sadhus' for weeks now, though some correspondents have made oblique hints at a gag order that prevents them from even mentioning a death toll.

The Telegraph was one of few to speculate 10–15 had died, 12 hours after the event. The Hindu declared it 'at least 15'. Times Now said 10 around 1 p.m.

But international media had already got hold of speculative figures much earlier in the day. Al Jazeera had said 7 in the early morning itself, which Reuters echoed — and then went on to update to 40 based on local reports, probably (see below). The Guardian said 'dozens', again, hours before Indian media would even speculate.

The Dainik Bhaskar newspaper, however, not only put a figure out but even shared images of the bodies within the hospital. The outlet reports that its correspondent saw at least one body marked with a '40', leading to speculation that at least 40 persons have died.

It also reports at least 70 have been injured.

The real worry is that these figures may be falling appalling short. For, if not, why the silence?

How is that an administration that can account for statistics in lakhs and crores, has been continuously doing so for weeks now — not just footfalls but logistics and monies spent and branding and VIP movement — is unable to count hospital beds and body bags?