Mamata Banerjee Slammed for her “Mrityu Kumbh” Remark, But gets Support from Shankaracharya

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Feb 19: Even as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and other BJP leaders slammed the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for her “Mrityu Kumbh” remark, she on Wednesday received support from an unexpected corner, Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, the 46th Shankaracharya of the Jyotish Peeth in Uttarakhand.

Hitting Ms Banerjee back, the UP chief minister while speaking in the state Assembly said over 56 crore people had taken a ‘holy dip’ in the ‘sangam‘ since the “Maha Kumbh” and held Ms Banerjee’s “baseless allegations” were like “playing with the faith of these 56 crore people.” Most other BJP leaders as usual held Ms Banerjee’s accusations as an “attack on the Sanatan Dharma and hurting the religious sentiments of the Hindus.”

Ms Banerjee while addressing the West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday had strongly criticised her UP counterpart for alleged lack of proper planning in holding one of the biggest religious congregation and citing the deaths of at least 30 pilgrims in a stampede at Prayagraj had called the Maha Kumbh as “Mrityu Kumbh (Death Kumbh).

“This is Mrityu Kumbh… I respect Maha Kumbh, I respect the holy Ganga Maa. But there is no planning… How many people’s bodies have been recovered?” Ms Banerjee had said in the Bengal assembly, pointing at the stampede that killed 30 people on January 29 when crowds surged ahead of an auspicious day for taking a holy dip. She had also criticised the Adityanath government alluding to the stampede and other issues such as traffic jams hundreds of kilometres long, high level of faecal coliform in water to highlight bad planning by the organisers.

“For the rich, the VIPs… there are systems available to get tents after paying as much as Rs 1 lakh. But for the poor, there are no arrangements made. A stampede can happen in large public gatherings, yes. But it is important to make arrangements. What planning did you make?” she asked.

Adityanath offered his condolences to the families of the 30 people who were killed in the January 29 stampede, and others who died in road accidents while travelling to Prayagraj for the religious gathering. “… the government stands with them. We will help them in every possible way.”

“But how is it appropriate to politicise this?” the Chief Minister said, as he also claimed “good fortune” in the state’s BJP government’s “opportunity to associate with the Maha Kumbh of this century.” “The country and world have participated… ignoring all the false campaigns,” he said.

Attacking her, the BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari termed Ms Banerjee’s comment on the Maha Kumbh as “hate Sanatan and Hindus”. Mr Bhandari also aimed at the opposition bloc INDIA, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, calling them “haters” of Hindus and Sanatan dharma.

“Yesterday, Akhilesh Yadav was looking for Akbar in Maha Kumbh, Rahul Gandhi has still not come to visit Maha Kumbh… They are scared of Sanatan’s unity, and their Hindu hatred is evident,” Mr Bhandari said.

While BJP leaders from the Centre as well as Bengal strongly condemned Ms Banerjee over her comments which they said hurt religious sentiments, Shankaracharya Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati Maharaj alleged the Maha Kumbh organisers did not follow proper crowd management processes, a view that concurred with Ms Banerjee’s claim in the assembly.

“… There was a traffic jam of 300 kilometres. If this is not mismanagement, then what is it? People had to walk 25-30 km with their luggage… The water coming for bathing is mixed with sewage water and the scientists don’t consider it fit for bathing, yet you are forcing crores of people to bathe in it,” Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, popularly known as Jagadguru, said.

“… Your job was to either stop the drains for a few days or divert them so that people could get pure water while bathing… You knew 12 years ago that the Maha Kumbh would come after 12 years, why did you not make any effort in this regard?” he asked. He also termed as a “lie” that Maha Kumbh was held every 144 years.

“When it was known beforehand that so many people would come and there is only limited space, then a plan should have been made for it… You did not make any plans… False propaganda was spread, the talk of 144 years itself is a lie… Crowd management and hospitality principles were not followed… Even when people died, they tried to hide it, which was a grave crime. In such a situation, if someone calls it names, then we won’t be able to oppose it…” Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati said.

As Bihar BJP chief Dilip Jaiswal accused Ms Banerjee of practicing “appeasement politics” and said, “As I have said earlier… they are atheists. They give only shameful statements,” the former UP chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav came out in support of Ms Banerjee, declaring, “What she said is right. People from her state also lost their lives. People had come from Bengal and other states. Even a FIR has not been registered. Who was responsible for making all the arrangements?”

Opposition leaders have alleged the number of dead in the Maha Kumbh stampede is much higher than the government’s figure. Since then, the opposition, led by Akhilesh Yadav, has been relentlessly demanding a list of those who died and accountability. Last week Mr Yadav launched another fierce attack.

“… devotees going to the Kumbh were stuck in a 300km-long traffic jam. Is this ‘Viksit Bharat’? In which the government cannot even manage traffic? What is the point of going to the Moon when we cannot settle issues on Earth,” he asked in Parliament. The opposition has also accused the UP government of disregarding the needs of the crores of devotees to cater for VIP and VVIP visits, including those by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week.

The UP government and the BJP, meanwhile, have hailed the relatively successful hosting of what is widely regarded as the world’s largest religious gathering. Swami Jitendranand Saraswati, national general secretary of the Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti, said Ms Banerjee is feeling “restless” on seeing the way Hindus from West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, and other parts of eastern India coming for amrit snan (holy dip). “I feel that the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal will prove to be a Mrityu Kumbh for your political career…” Swami Jitendranand Saraswati said.