The periodic congregation of sadhus and ordinary believers and practitioners of various schools of Hinduism on the bank of the confluence of the rivers Ganga and Yamuna in Allahabad, now renamed Prayagraj, or in other centres like Haridwar and Ujjain, has been an age-old Hindu pilgrimage practice. While early references to the Kumbh describe it more as a philosophical event dominated by scriptural discourse and debates, over the years it metamorphosed into a riverside religious fair. In the Modi-Shah-Yogi era, it has now become a politico-religious spectacle, a platform that draws on the religious faith of common Hindus to project the power of corporate Hindutva and increasingly promote the communal fascist agenda of Hindu Rashtra. The current Prayagraj Mahakumbh has taken this trend to an ominous level.
With Delhi going to polls on February 5, the Sangh brigade has gone the whole hog to use the Prayagraj Mahakumbh as a mega publicity platform. February is also the month of the budget and what better option could the Modi government have had to distract public attention from the gloomy economic conditions than projecting the Kumbh as a great success story? With thousands of crores of rupees pumped in from the government coffer, the Modi-Yogi double engine dispensation propagated the Kumbh as a massive management marvel. Even as Sangh-inspired demands for keeping non-Hindus, especially Muslims, strictly away from the entire event become more strident, the Kumbh is being publicised as a great celebration of 'social equality'. But following the tragic 29 January crush (ground reports now reveal at least three crush sites), the propaganda balloon has been thoroughly punctured and the truth has started coming out.
The stampedes which have claimed reportedly at least fifty lives and injured scores of pilgrims, and the repeated incidents of fire that destroyed many tents and stalls expose the government's self-congratulatory claims regarding the management of this mega fair. If anything, the stampedes are a shocking testimony of utter mismanagement and complete disregard for the plight of ordinary pilgrims while remaining fixated on VIP comfort and privileges. What is even worse is the shocking response to the tragedy - the concerted attempts to suppress and downplay the tragedy by the government, faithfully echoed by the dominant media with a few honourable exceptions, presenting it as a minor and inevitable mishap of little consequence in an event of this scale. We even had a shockingly insensitive comment by a Hindu Rashtra champion describing the stampede deaths as attainment of salvation by fortunate pilgrims.
The Prayagraj Kumbh has become a platform for the projection of the business-politics-religion nexus that drives the Modi government. Yogi Adityanath's office released a photo of Yogi Adityanath and Baba Ramdev performing a yogic tango of sorts, Amit Shah was seen having a holy anointment by a dozen sadhus surrounding him while taking a dip in the river, while Gautam Adani collaborated with ISKCON to serve free food to pilgrims in the ISKCON camp, calling the Kumbh fair a great display of India's 'spiritual infrastructure'. Meanwhile, a stall of Acharya Prashant, the spiritual preacher who combines his spiritual discourse with an anti-superstition campaign, was vandalised by a group of 'sadhus'. And to top it all, the Kumbh also witnessed the release of a 501-page draft constitution for an 'Akhand Hindu Rashtra' prepared by a 25-member team of 'scriptural scholars'. The draft claiming to draw on Hindu scriptures ranging from Ramayana and Krishna's gospels to Manusmriti and Chanakya's Arthashastra, advocates a presidential form of centralised government with voting rights denied to Muslims.
For millions of Hindu believers, the Kumbh may be an ancient celebration of faith, but for the Sangh brigade and the entire lobby of Hindu Rashtra advocates, the Kumbh is clearly a political project. When religion is amalgamated with politics, the beliefs of ordinary people get subordinated to the political interests of dominant forces. The Kumbh tragedy must serve as a stark reminder of the disastrous implications of political exploitation of religion.
The Modi-Yogi 'double engine' dispensation must publicly take responsibility for the Kumbh tragedy, and pay adequate compensation for the victims and the injured. The Supreme Court of India as the custodian of the Constitution should take cognizance of the anti-Constitution campaign launched by the so-called Hindu Rashtra Samvidhan Nirmal Samiti and nip this latest manifestation of the anti-Constitution conspiracy in the bud. It should now become abundantly clear to all that the disparaging remarks made by Amit Shah on the floor of Parliament were no sudden slip of the tongue. The conspiracy against the Constitution and the Republic is gathering momentum, and the people of India who are committed to the constitutional proclamation of a sovereign socialist secular democratic republic of India must rally unitedly to foil this attack.
