Politics in the time of Maha Kumbh

The BJP understands how religion can provide a powerful narrative structure for its political agenda. The Congress under Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi does not seem to appreciate the significance of these massive religious gatherings.

Whatever causes the report of the judicial enquiry may eventually pinpoint as being responsible for the terrible tragedy at the Maha Kumbh, it should have been clear that prime-time TV advertisements and front-page invitations by the state government would encourage unmanageable overcrowding.

The largest gathering of people in peace time anywhere in the world — lasting 45-days — was projected as proof of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s administrative and management acumen.

However, the corrective measures that have since been implemented, suggest that the systems for crowd control fell far short of the propaganda about world-class crowd management technologies.

The Maha Kumbh, essentially a religious event, however, will continue to be used for political ends as political leaders attempt to foster a sense of shared norms and solidarity with deeply religious people.

Earlier, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge egregiously provoked a sharp response to his statement that taking a holy dip would not eradicate poverty. The BJP condemned the Congress as being “against Indian culture and Sanatan Dharma”.

Now Kharge seems to be more concerned about the pilgrims, criticising "half-baked arrangements" and alleging that the UP government was “paying more attention to self-promotion than management and mismanagement.”

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi blamed “VIP culture” for the mismanagement of the situation, although there was no VIP movement at night when the stampede took place. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav slammed the Adityanath government for “spreading false propaganda” by claiming that it had made “world class” arrangements at the Maha Kumbh.

While politicisation of the Maha Kumbh has gained momentum after the stampede, politics was in fact embedded in it from day one.

The Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) attributed its resounding defeat in the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 — winning only 33 of the 80 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh — to the drift of Dalit and OBC votes to the Opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc.

The Maha Kumbh provided an opportunity to charm these castes back into the BJP fold, particularly the most backward communities like the Nishads (boatmen) in the state. The Nishad Party, an ally of the BJP in the state, had been getting restive as had another ally, the Apana Dal (Sone Lal).

Adityanath described the Maha Kumbh as “samajik samata ka mahaparv (great festival of social unity)” and Prime Minister Narendra Modi called it the “mahayagya of unity” (a mega-rite of unity).

Posters issued by the UP government carried images of Lord Ram beside Nishad Raj (the mythical king of boatmen or Nishads on the banks of the Ganga). Adityanath inaugurated a Nishad Raj Park at Prayagraj’s Sringverpur (legendary city rule by Nishad Raj) and posters showed Modi washing the feet of sanitation workers during the 2019 Kumbh.

When Modi visited Prayagraj on December 13 to launch various projects linked to the Maha Kumbh, he referred to the city as “Land of Nishad Raj”. He recalled the feet-washing episode as a moving experience: “The satisfaction and fulfilment I felt while performing this gesture remains a cherished and unforgettable experience in my life.”

If such overt politicisation of the Maha Kumbh were not enough, Modi has also chosen to take the holy dip in Prayagraj on February 5. Could it be a coincidence that by then the polling for the Delhi elections will be in full swing? So will be an important by-election in UP’s Milkipur Assembly constituency in Ayodhya, where besides Dalits and Brahmins, Nishads are present in significant numbers.

TV channels one expects will cover Modi’s holy dip at the Maha Kumbh, for the appreciation of the voters of Delhi and Milkipur. Whether it will have an impact on their voting behaviour, however, remains to be seen.

The BJP is not the first to use the Kumbh or Maha Kumbh for political purposes. Since colonial times, these vast gatherings of the faithful have been taken advantage of by nationalists as well as Hindu organisations to merge religious and political messages.

More recently, the Congress under Indira Gandhi used the Kumbh Mela at Allahabad just before the general election of 1977. Public address systems broadcast the benefits of the 20-point programme and Sanjay Gandhi’s Five-Point Programme. The Bharat Sadhu Samaj, in fact, passed a resolution praising the government’s anti-poverty programmes.

However, the JP movement also gained momentum in the same Kumbh. The Dharam Sansad (religious parliament) held there declared Indira Gandhi as an enemy of India, helping the electoral prospects of the Janata Party in the North India’s cow belt.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) used the 1989 Kumbh to release the blueprint of the proposed Ram temple at Ayodhya, its Dharam Sansad vowing to collect bricks to build the temple from villages all over India. In the 2001 Kumbh, the VHP unveiled a scale-model of the proposed Ram temple at Ayodhya. Sonia Gandhi took an ‘ardh-snan’ (partial dip) at the Kumbh, claiming somewhat incredulously, that it was a religious and not a political act.

Adityanath, perhaps tried to outdo his predecessors when he held a Cabinet meeting at Prayagraj on January 22, and then proceeded to take a well-publicised holy dip with his entire Cabinet in the Ganga.

On Basant Panchami (February 2), some Hindutva groups propose to release a 501-page ‘Constitution’ of a ‘Akhand Hindu Rashtra’ (united or undivided Hindu nation), drawing apparently on the Ramayana, the Gita, the Manusmriti, and Chanakya’s Arthashastra.

The BJP understands how religion can provide a powerful narrative structure for its political agenda. Opposition leaders like Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party understand this better than the Congress. He took a dip at the Maha Kumbh with much fanfare. Even Sonia Gandhi understood this when she took a partial dip at the Kumbh in 2001.

However, the Congress under Kharge and Rahul Gandhi does not seem to appreciate the significance of these massive religious gatherings. Tapping into religious sentiment to mobilise mass support does not mean giving up on secularism or pandering to communal ideas. There is a firm line between being Hindu and being a BJP supporter.

There is no reason to be disdainful of the faithful who trudge long distances to take a dip at the Maha Kumbh, fully aware of the risks of such large gatherings. As for poverty, it will neither be removed by facilitating a dip in the ganga nor by giving Hajj subsidies.

(Bharat Bhushan is a New Delhi-based journalist)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.