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The message from Kumbh

Neerad Pandharipande

Even before the Maha Kumbh Mela started on January 13, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttar Pradesh attempted to transform the event that holds spiritual significance for millions of Hindus into a politically charged extravaganza. But in the early hours of January 29, the spectacle turned into tragedy, when a stampede left at least 30 dead and 60 injured.

In the wake of such a disaster, one would think that the government, especially one that claims to represent Hindu interests, would act with alacrity to provide assistance to the victims and answers to citizens at large. However, the Adityanath government’s energies were directed towards managing the public narrative.

It took about 17 hours for the administration to even acknowledge what had long been plain to the eye – that the incident that had occurred at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna was a deadly stampede. Those who followed the news that day were witness to grim Orwellian doublespeak: though Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah expressed their condolences to the relatives of the dead, a senior police official on the ground in Prayagraj insisted that no stampede had taken place.

Reflecting this dichotomy between the statements of top national leaders and local officials, there was a sharp contrast between the ease with which senior politicians and celebrities took the holy dip, and the struggles of ordinary pilgrims to get to the river. One pilgrim, whose mother died during the stampede, told The Indian Express about scenes of “utter chaos” and a complete absence of crowd management at the Maha Kumbh.

But the state administration, with the help of much of the mainstream media, urged citizens to look elsewhere – at flower petals being showered on devotees from a helicopter, for instance, and at tastefully shot aerial footage of the pilgrimage.

News anchors vied with one another to shield the BJP government from blame. Cases in point were Aaj Tak’s Sudhir Chaudhary, who accused the international media of trying to defame India by reporting on the stampede, and CNN-News18’s Rahul Shivshankar, who asked whether the “blame game could have waited for a little later”.

In similar vein, Gaurav Sawant of India Today told viewers, “Early this morning, there was tragedy, but later in the evening, there is celebration of the Sanatan faith.”

On the morning after the stampede, by which time the magnitude of the tragedy was clear, an editorial in The Times of India suggested that at a gathering as vast as the Kumbh, “some disorder is almost inevitable”. It claimed: “Most accounts had credited govt for proportionate arrangements.”

Of course, not all media outlets toed the official line. For those willing to question the state government’s narrative, a visit to a mortuary was all it took to shed to light on the possibility that the actual death count could be much higher than that claimed by the administration – which was what 4 PM News Network did on January 30. Such reportage, however, was the exception.

Despite attempts by pliant media outlets to downplay the extent of the tragedy and the government’s inadequacies, the stampede has now received widespread attention. International news agencies have published searing photographs of grieving family members. Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav has asked whether special arrangements for “VIPs” contributed to overcrowding.

In response, the Uttar Pradesh government has announced a judicial inquiry and cancelled all VIP passes, even as it maintains that the situation is under control.

In the end, the tragedy at Kumbh has underlined the Adityanath government’s unwillingness to accept responsibility for the deaths as well as the mainstream media’s unwillingness to demand it.

Despair and horror: 10 photos that tell the story of the stampede at the Maha Kumbh Mela

Here is a summary of the week’s top stories.

Economic slowdown. India’s real gross domestic product is expected to grow between 6.3% and 6.8% in the financial year 2025-’26, the government’s annual Economic Survey has projected.

This would mean a growth rate below 7% for India for the second consecutive year. The country’s real GDP is estimated to have grown at 6.4% in the current financial year, according to the government’s early estimates released on January 7.

Poll panel vs Kejriwal. Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal accused Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini of the Bharatiya Janata Party of committing a crime by “sending poisonous water to Delhi and trying to create an artificial water crisis”.

The BJP government in Haryana has filed a case against Kejriwal for making these allegations and the Election Commission issued a notice to Kejriwal seeking evidence for his claims. The Delhi elections will be held on February 5.

The controversy began on Monday when Kejriwal shared a video of Delhi Chief Minister Atishi alleging that the BJP was conspiring to poison the city’s drinking water. The next day, Atishi cited a letter from the Delhi Jal Board’s chief executive officer, which stated that while the national capital’s water treatment plants could handle ammonia levels up to one part per million, the contamination in the Yamuna exceeded permissible limits.

However, the Delhi Jal Board later contradicted Kejriwal’s claim, calling it “factually incorrect” and “misleading”.

The Election Commissioner said that a preliminary assessment suggested that Kejriwal’s remarks could promote “disharmony and enmity between groups”.

JPC clears Waqf Bill. A joint parliamentary committee adopted the revised 2024 Waqf Amendment Bill after a vote. The bill was cleared with 15 votes in favour and 11 against, with amendments proposed by Opposition MPs rejected.

Opposition legislators described the bill as “unconstitutional”, contending that it would allow government interference in Muslim religious matters. BJP MP Jagdambika Pal, who chaired the committee, claimed that several amendments in the draft bill address Opposition concerns.

The bill proposes to curb the authority of waqf boards, allow non-Muslims as board members, restrict property donations and alter the function of waqf tribunals. It has been opposed by the Opposition INDIA bloc and Muslim groups. The bill is expected to be tabled in the Budget Session.

Ayush Tiwari and Zafar Aafaq explain why Muslim leaders are objecting to the new Waqf Bill, and Abhik Deb reports on how the BJP is using the Waqf bill row to push its Hindutva politics.

The UCC set rolling. The Uniform Civil Code came into effect in Uttarakhand on Monday. With this, the BJP-ruled state became the first to enforce such a code after Independence.

The code is a common set of laws governing marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all citizens. Currently, such personal affairs of different religious and tribal groups are based on community-specific laws, largely derived from religious scripture.

While inaugurating a portal for the implementation of the code, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that it was a constitutional measure “not against any religion or sect”. However, in its campaign for the code, the BJP had mainly targeted Muslim personal law, arguing that it discriminated against women.

Prior relationship details, Aadhaar card: What live-in couples must submit under Uttarakhand UCC, writes Vineet Bhalla.

Also on Scroll this week

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