Indian officials downplayed a deadly stampede at the world's largest religious festival because they wanted to protect the public image of a potential successor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, analysts and witnesses have said.
Deadly incidents are regrettably common at public gatherings in the world's most populous country, where swarming crowds and poor safety standards often combine with lethal consequences. Where this week differed from past stampedes was a concerted effort by authorities to understate its severity -- or deny outright that it happened. Officials insisted for hours that no one was seriously injured, despite graphic television footage from the scene, that the situation was under control, and that suggestions to the contrary amounted to rumour-mongering.
They waited for almost a day before confirming that at least 30 people had been killed in the chaotic pre-dawn crowd surge at a festival that has drawn tens of millions of pilgrims from around India. They said it was a 'stampede-like situation'. What does that mean? Wednesday's stampede took place at the Kumbh Mela, a yearly festival of ritual bathing that has been held in the northern city of Prayagraj for more than a millennium.
Responsibility for its staging -- and the unfathomable numbers of devotees who visit over its six-week duration -- this year fell on officials in Uttar Pradesh, a state home to more people than Brazil.
Uttar Pradesh is run by chief minister Yogi Adityanath, 52, a firebrand former monk who has become one of the leading figures in Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and is seen as a potential future prime minister. Adityanath had taken steps to make the Kumbh Mela a sign of the success of his stewardship, with billboards showing the smiling saffron robe-clad leader a ubiquitous feature of the festival.
