Politics has erupted, like in most such things in India, over the tragic deaths in the stampede early on Wednesday morning at the Mahakumbh in Prayagraj, but the Uttar Pradesh chief minister is bound to face questions because it is the BJP government at the Centre and the state that had hyped up the religious event, and Yogi Adityanath had earlier blamed previous governments for stampedes at the Kumbh Mela.
At the time of writing this report nearly 15 hours after the stampede, Reuters has reported that 40 bodies are in the morgue.
The Congress was quick to grab the political opportunity, with Rahul Gandhi saying that mismanagement and administration's special focus on VIP movement instead of common devotees were responsible for this tragic incident.
X/snikhil_social
Gandhi also said "VIP culture" should be reined in and the government should make better arrangements to fulfil the needs of common devotees at the Mahakumbh.
"Half-baked arrangements, VIP movement, paying more attention to self-promotion and mismanagement are responsible for this. Such arrangements despite spending thousands of crores of rupees are condemnable," Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X.
As the political dart game began, some curious posts began to appear on social media.
X/@Benarasiyaa
"The #stampede at #Mahakumbh is truly unfortunate, but holding the government solely responsible ignores the immense scale of this gathering. While there is always room for better crowd management, the unprecedented turnout has pushed even the most meticulous planning to its limits," said one post on X (formerly Twitter), posted by a user named Nikhil Srivastava with the handle @snikhil_social.
"No other nation in the world manages an event of this magnitude, and despite limited resources, the administration has made every effort to ensure a smooth experience for millions. May Mahadev grant peace to the bereaved and guide the authorities in concluding the event safely. Rather than politicizing this sacred congregation, let’s focus on strengthening safety measures," the post added.
There can be no arguing with the contents of the post, but what made it curious was that Srivastava, whose bio on X says "Ex-Journo | IIM-L Alumnus | Desh Bhakt", had put his --presumably -- own money to post it.
It was marked "AD" on X, which means the user has paid for the post to be widely seen.
Evidently, Yogi Adityanath is such a popular chief minister that his admirers pay to defend his administration.
On the other end of the political affiliation spectrum, some X users posted an old interview of Adityanath, headlined: "'Previous govts caused stampedes': Adityanath takes stock of Maha Kumbh preparations."
"Those people had made Kumbh synonymous with dirt, chaos and stampede. This should be a lesson for them. This time, Kumbh is going to be the world's largest spiritual event..." Adityanath had said to the Indian Express on January 8.
