Drawing flak over the Kumbh stampede, the Yogi Adityanath government has announced several changes at the venue to prevent such incidents. It has also announced the formation of a judicial panel to probe the incident. But questions remain around its initial silence on the casualties.
Newspaper editorials made a note of the government’s poor planning as well as the official delay in announcing the toll.
One, however, in The Times of India, struck a slightly different note.
If anything, the editorial was rather forgiving in its approach, and urged readers to “look for the right perspective”. After all, it said, in a “gathering as vast as the Kumbh, some disorder is almost inevitable”.
The Times of India went to great lengths to note that the “bigger picture is that so many crores of devotees came and went unharmed” and that “deaths from stampedes, even in a crowded country like India, are only a fraction of total deaths from various causes”.
To further drive home the point that life is cheap in India, the editorial said front-page headlines often fail to give proper context. “Alzheimer’s is the seventh leading cause of death worldwide. But deaths from this disease never make Page 1 – a gruesome murder or a Kumbh stampede does.”
Editorials in other newspapers, meanwhile, were more straightforward.
“Through the day, the statements from the administration spoke only of ‘several injured’, coupled with figures of how tens of millions had bathed on the holy day. It appeared that, until 7 pm, the state machinery was in denial mode about the stampede, forgetting that transparency is crucial for good management,” wrote the Hindustan Times. “Three more ‘shahi snans’ are scheduled before the Maha Kumbh gets over on February 26. The UP government must do better to prevent a repeat of Wednesday’s terrible tragedy,” its editorial further said.
The Hindu called the UP government’s delay in formally announcing the number of casualties “alarming”. “It is reminiscent of the opacity of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his government after the widespread deaths during the second COVID-19 wave in March 2021, the scale of which was evident later when horrific images of bodies floating in the Ganga emerged,” the daily wrote.
The Tribune called for a thorough probe to determine how the situation escalated and to identify those who were guilty of neglecting their duties. “Creating a veil of secrecy will only fuel rumours and misinformation,” the newspaper warned. “The administration did appeal to devotees to bathe at the first ghat they reached so as to prevent overcrowding, while emphasising that all ghats at Sangam were equally sacred. However, this appeal should have been backed by proactive steps to make pilgrims move ahead in a disciplined way,” its editorial said.
Newslaundry had reported how many families did not receive any official help while they continued to frantically search for their loved ones.
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