To Janaki Sinha, schoolteacher and Kumbh visitor, the faith of the pilgrims is taller than the billboards and barricades put up by chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
The 12 kilometres of forced walk to the “nose” of the Sangam from Medical College Chauraha — where all vehicles must stop — is the story of the devotion of thousands like Janaki whose only wish is to bathe in the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati.
But this Mahakumbh is also a story of Adityanath’s efforts at self-branding — apparently to position himself as heir to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Hundreds of 30-foot-tall hoardings, featuring Modi and Adityanath, dot the roads taken by the pilgrims and the Mela area. But few seem to even glance at these, their eyes fixed on the road and their minds on the Sangam.
There are other groups of pilgrims, too, returning from the confluence and chanting
“Ganga Maiya ki jai”. Ask them and you find that most haven’t noticed the hoardings.
“Adityanath says, ‘Visit the Sangam to earn punya’. The sadhus say we should be here to wash our sins,” Janaki, 55, a Ballia resident, told The Telegraph.
“The truth is, a ‘Hindu’ is one who fears to commit a sin and who does punya wherever he or she is. We don’t need to be here for this. And we have the right to ignore the politicians and the Babas.”
She continued: “We are here because we believe in the simple things of life and religion. Taking a dip in the Ganga-Yamuna is a reconfirmation of our faith in our gods and goddesses.”
Before embarking on the arduous walk back to their camps, devotees take rest after their holy bath at the Sangam Piyush Srivastava
Janaki had trudged the 12km stretch with her husband, son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons on Tuesday morning, taken the holy dip and walked 6km to the Prayag railway station when she lost her strength and patience.
“Why is there no rickshaw or tempo to make our journey a little easier?” the schoolteacher asked a policeman at Quila Crossing.
“Because we can’t manage the crowd if vehicles are allowed in the Mahakumbh area,” the policeman replied with a smile.
Janaki seemed dissatisfied. “What about the wider part of the road that has been cordoned off for VIPs?” she asked.
“Thousands of devotees are made to walk on one road while there’s another road on which just one or two cars pass in 10 to 20 minutes. This road would have been wider and there would be no chaos if you didn’t have a VIP road.”
The policeman laughed, glanced around, lowered his voice and said: “Maybe you voted for this government... change it the next time.”
Janaki told this newspaper: “The government seems to be trying to keep us away from the Sangam. Let’s ignore the hardships imposed by the government and perform our puja.”
Her husband and fellow schoolteacher Jaswant Sinha said: “Over a decade ago, we had to walk less than 2km to reach the Sangam but the government is humiliating us by forcing us to walk 24km to the Sangam and back.”
He added: “On television, we saw paved ghats with safe steps to enter the river in the Sangam area. We also saw clean water. But after coming here, we found sandbags on the riverbank (to prevent pilgrims slipping into the water) where the ordinary devotees are allowed to bathe. We took the bath in muddy water. The concrete ghat and clean water are for the VIPs.”
VIPs, like Union home minister Amit Shah who paid a visit with his family on Tuesday, take a walkway to the middle of the river where the water is clean.
Janaki and her family are, however, lucky that they know the routes in Allahabad. One can see police stopping the buses before the Phaphamau, Naini and Jhusi bridges and misleading devotees by telling them the part of the river flowing through the area is the Sangam. Allahabad is hemmed by the two rivers from three sides.
Ayodhya Singh from Basti was resting on the riverbank after having walked 25km and taking the dip.
“The police stopped our bus before the Naini bridge at 6am (on Tuesday). The ten of us started walking and reached the Sangam at 10am. We will return to our bus after resting for an hour. It will be a 50km walk in all,” he said.
Asked about the hoardings of Modi and Yogi put up every 100 metres on their way to the Sangam, Ayodhya said he and his group were too preoccupied with reaching the Sangam, amid all the hardship, to notice them.
“We had tied a rope around our waists so that none strayed and got lost. We didn’t see the hoardings,” he said. “Billboards are ephemeral, mind you, but faith is eternal. Modi and Yogi are mortals, our religion is not.”
Adityanath claims he has organised the Mela better than previous governments did. “There are about 2 crore devotees on any given day at Prayagraj (Allahabad) but you won’t see any haste or mismanagement,” he said.
But on Monday, a restless crowd broke the barricades on Pontoon Bridge No. 7 on the Ganga when the police stopped them from taking that route, apparently because Shah was at the Sangam. Eyewitnesses said the mob damaged a sub-divisional magistrate’s jeep.
“This bridge was open in the morning but they suddenly closed it and an SDM told us the home minister was at the confluence with his family and Adityanath,” Jatin Sant, a resident of Daraganj, said.
“Although they didn’t baton-charge us when some people broke the barricades and attacked a jeep, they didn’t let us pass through that bridge, either.”
Unemployed youths with motorbikes and handcart owners have found a temporary source of income because of the chaos at the Mela. Since handcarts are permitted to carry food to the Mela area and locally registered motorbikes are allowed up to the Mandir Marg — an embankment about 5km from the Sangam — they are ferrying devotees up to this spot, charging anything between ₹100 and ₹500.
Sanjay Lodhi, a young man with a motorcycle, said: “I’m earning ₹2,000 to ₹,3000 per day. Strangely, young and well-dressed people avail our service but the middle-aged pilgrims prefer to save money and walk.”