Omar Rashid 
New Delhi: Ever since 42 persons were killed in a stampede at the Allahabad Railway station during the 2013 Maha Kumbh Mela, Mohammad Azam Khan, the senior Muslim leader of the Samajwadi Party, has been widely projected by the Bharatiya Janata Party as the villain behind the tragedy.
Khan, who was the state’s urban development minister in 2013, when Uttar Pradesh was ruled by the Samajwadi Party, was the head of the Mela organising committee that year. ‘A person who had no knowledge of Sanatan culture – a Muslim – was handed the responsibility of the biggest mass gathering of Hindus,’ was the line of attack used by the BJP, including chief minister Adityanath, to communalise the stampede of 2013.
As recently as November 2024, UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, referred to Khan to target the previous government for the stampede that occurred 12 years ago. “The SP government, busy with the Saifai Mahotsav, left the Kumbh in the hands of Mohammad Azam Khan, due to which many pilgrims lost their lives in accidents and the devotees had to face great difficulties,” said Maurya.
Forty-two persons were killed and at least 45 were injured in a stampede that broke out after a railing on a footbridge collapsed at the Allahabad Railway junction, some 7-8 kms west of the Mela site, in February 2013. The incident took place when the railway station was teeming with thousands of pilgrims who were making their journey home after a dip on the occasion of Mauni Amavasya, the main bathing event of the Kumbh.
Taking “moral responsibility” for the deaths, Khan resigned from the post of the head of the Mela organising committee, even though the stampede took place outside the Mela area. “The responsibility of the railway station was technically not mine. But if people die and the matter is related to religion then it is a matter of even more grief,” he said then.
Switch back to 2025, and the political administrators of UP face a similar situation.
Milkipur ahead, whither scapegoat?
Although the Adityanath government has announced a judicial probe into the deaths of at least 30 persons in the stampede in the Maha Kumbh Mela area on Mauni Amavasya earlier this week, no resignations have been forthcoming. The ruling BJP, which has since 2013 used Khan’s Muslim identity as a punching bag to target the Samajwadi Party for mismanaging the crowds during the last Maha Kumbh, has evaded direct responsibility and so far, not taken any punitive action except for the corrective measure of cancelling VVIP passes. But that does not shield it from political accountability of the stampede within the precincts of the Mela.
The human tragedy of January 29, 2025 not only attested to the mismanagement of crowds at the Mela but has also come as a massive blow to the Adityanath-led BJP propaganda-driven campaign to showcase the festival as the epitome of meticulous management and planning and dedication to the cause of Hindutva. The government claimed that it estimated that around 40-45 crore people would attend the Mela in Prayagraj. With no scapegoat in sight, as both the governments are run the saffron party, the Adityanath government is struggling to find a logical response to explain the crisis, with public anger clearly directed towards its misguided priorities of entertaining VVIPs at the cost of ensuring a smooth entry and exit for the common devotees.
The political weight of the Kumbh stampede weighs heavy on Adityanath, who has heavily politicised the festival and was leading his government’s propaganda campaign.
He faces an awkward situation both in the short and the long term. The timing of the stampede could not have been worse for Adityanath.
Milkipur, a high-value assembly seat in Ayodhya, is set to vote in the bypolls next week. So is Delhi, where Adityanath has promoted the management of Kumbh Mela and the cleanliness of the Sangam – the confluence of the Ganga and the Yamuna – as a major electoral issue. The Kumbh deaths have derailed Adityanath’s narrative and blunted his narrative against the Opposition who he has accused of not paying attention to the Hindu faith and its festivals during their tenure.
Also read: Milkipur Bypolls: In Prestige Seat For Both BJP and SP, Concerns Remain About Free and Fair Voting
Over-the-top political advertisement
In his election rallies – in Milkipur as well as in Delhi – Adityanath has tried to market the Kumbh Mela as the successful achievement of the “double-engine” governments. Addressing a rally in Rajendra Nagar, Adityanath dared Aam Aadmi Party’s national convenor and former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, to take a dip in the Yamuna along with colleagues just like Adityanath had taken a dip at the Sangam with members of his ministerial cabinet. Kejriwal did not have the “moral courage” to do so, said Adityanath, who also presided over a special cabinet meeting of the UP government held in the Mela premises. Cabinet meetings in UP are usually held in Lucknow, the state capital.
Adityanath started the trend of conducting cabinet meetings in the Mela during the Ardh Kumbh Mela in 2019. He also renamed the Ardh Kumbh (occurs once in six years) as the Kumbh Mela.
In Vikaspuri, Delhi, Adityanath recently said that previous governments in UP did not give any respect to the “faith” of the common people, pilgrims and Hindu seers. “What was the result? The event would become a victim of chaos, disorder and anarchy,” said Adityanath. These words truly ring loud today, as we watch footage of hapless pilgrims searching for their loved ones after the tragedy in the Mela.
In Mangolpuri, Adityanath again stressed that the Maha Kumbh was being successfully organised with “splendour and divinity” due to the double-engine government.
It is true that organising the Kumbh Mela successfully is a logistical feat requiring multiple agencies and pain-staking coordination. Chances of mishaps are always alive due the sheer size of the event and the flow of lakhs of people on any given day. But the Adityanath government upped the stakes through its own over-the-top political advertisement of the festival, with scant regard to last-mile management of the crowds and the welfare of the pilgrims, who had to face physical as well as emotional inconvenience.
Also read: Let Us Not Overdo this ‘Triumph of Faith’
Poll fulcrums
In the long term, too, the stampede and the deaths of innocent pilgrims is bound to play in public memory for years to come. The incident, on one of Hinduism’s holiest festivals, is an indelible stain on Adityanath’s tall claims of being an efficient event manager. It stands stark especially given the relentless attacks the BJP and Adityanath have directed at previous governments. The outrage over the deaths is heard louder than the entire propaganda machinery put in place to absolve the government of the responsibility.
The Kumbh tragedy happened a week after the government celebrated the first anniversary of the opening of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, at the site where the Babri Masjid stood for four centuries before it was razed by a mob of politically-motivated extremists. The much-publicised Ram Mandir was billed to be the BJP’s playing card in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Although the party just managed to return to power at the Union government with the support of allies, the election would be remembered for years to come as the campaign where the saffron party lost in the land of the Ram Mandir, the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat. The defeat in Faizabad bust the BJP’s game of projecting the temple as a legitimate approval of public sentiment.
A similar scenario has emerged in regard to the Kumbh Mela. Adityanath may recover from the immediate impact of the stampede with the help of a pliant mainstream media and friendly social media influencers. However, the deaths have permanently stained his record as the CM, not to mention, the head priest of a prominent temple, under whose watch at least 30 Hindu pilgrims died on one of the holiest festivals of Hinduism. All eyes should be on how Adityanath tries to wriggle out of the situation in his remaining public meetings in Ayodhya and Delhi.