www.nareshminocha.com

 (Culled image from Modiji's website)

 

“If people are not allowed to speak their mind out or criticise, the system of democracy will start to stink like a pool of stagnant water,” stated Mr. Narendra Modi on 15th July 2012. Mr. Modi, as Gujarat Chief Minister, said this while launching ‘Gujarat Guardian’ daily in Surat. 

Modiji’s sermon has a direct relevance to the Mr Rahul Gandhi’s public outcry as the leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha. It is equally relevant to recent resentment in the Opposition benches against presiding persons of both houses and on denial of debate on several issues including the ones pertaining to Adani group. 

On 26th March 2025, Mr. Gandhi claimed that he was not allowed to speak for days by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. LoP reportedly said: “I don’t know what is going on. I requested him to let me speak, but he just ran away. This is no way to run the House,” Gandhi said. “It is a convention that the Leader of Opposition is given time to speak. Whenever I stand up, I am stopped. I did nothing wrong—I was sitting quietly. Here, there is no place for democracy. There is only place for the government.” 

Mr. Birla, on the other hand, has responded to this charge by stating: “I expect the Leader of Opposition to follow the rules”.

On 18th March too, Mr. Gandhi bemoaned that he was denied chance to speak after Mr. Modi's statement on Maha Kumbh’s success. He was quoted in the mainstream media as saying that: “Our only complaint is that the PM did not give Shraddhanjali (pay homage) to those who lost their lives in Kumbh. The youth, who went to the Maha Kumbh, also wants one more thing from the PM, which is employment… As per the democratic structure, the LoP should get an opportunity to speak, but they won’t let us. This is new India.”

Addressing the Lok Sabha on successful conclusion of Maha Kumbh, Mr. Modi said: “In the Maha Kumbh, all differences faded away; this is India's great strength, showing that the spirit of unity is deeply rooted within us.” 

Unfortunately, this spirit couldn’t permeate to Lok Sabha, which draws its strength from Maha Kumbh of democracy, the general elections.  

Maha Kumbh of 2025 witnessed three stampede- two on the same night at Prayagraj in UP and third one a few days later at New Delhi railway station where pilgrims got crushed in the rush to board Kumbh special train. 

And there hangs an untold, sad story of what PM didn’t mention in his statement. This is baffling indeed. This is because the three stampede, coupled with many deaths and injuries to pilgrims in road accidents, constitute an unprecedented chain of man-made disaster. This all happened during the entire duration of Kumbh Mela. Add to this series of camp fires at mela site.

This multi-dimensional tragedy might have deeply pained Modiji, who once expressed his concern for living beings in 2013 by citing the sadness triggered when a puppy coming under wheel of a car. Modiji’s Reuter interview dated 12th July 2013, in which puppy analogy was drawn with reference post-Godhra riot victims became a household narrative across the globe. 

The whole world was looking at Indian PM to see how he mourns in Parliament the martyrdom of pilgrims. The entire world expected Mr. Modi to explain how India manages to contain death toll in stampede and road accidents during Kumbh. This would have been in keeping with his repeated efforts to pitch Kumbh before all countries. 

“We should tell the entire world about the organising capacity of an event like the Kumbh” stated Mr. Modi at the International Convention on Universal Message of Simhasth at Ujjain on 14th May 2016.

Mr. Modi, however, didn’t even recall his own sermons on Kumbh delivered over the decades. Before recalling few of his amazing quotes, it is important to know whether any previous PM or President mentioned about Kumbh in Parliament to either bemoan stampede deaths or trumpet success of holy festival.   

The only other PM who made statement on Kumbh was Jawaharlal Nehru. He made the statements as part of reply to debate on Motion of Thanks (MoT) on President’s Address to Parliament. Decades later, Rajiv Gandhi, as PM, made a solitary reference to an upcoming Kumbh Mela while briefly mentioning about Ganga cleaning project in 1986.

 Mr. Nehru’s statement in both houses of Parliament was preceded by President Dr. Rajendra Prasad’s address to Parliament. Unlike Mr. Modi, neither Dr. Prasad nor Mr. Nehru shied away from their solemn duty to share their anguish with the citizens over the 1954 stampede at Kumbh.  

In his address to Parliament on 15th February 1954, Dr. Prasad explained the stampede as: “on the Amavas day, an accidental mishap led to a large number of persons being crushed to death by the uncontrollable passage of others over them. This grievous tragedy, which marred a happy occasion, has brought sorrow to many and, on your behalf and mine, I extend my deep sympathy to the relatives of those who have suffered.”

Replying to MoT debate in Rajya Sabha on President’s Address on 19th February 1954, Mr. Nehru stated: “if we see a tragedy, even if one man dies before us, we feel it; it is a personal thing. Now this Kumbh Mela tragedy came as a personal shock to us because we were there and when people hear of it differently, remaining at distant places, and accuse us, it is odd.”

Three days later, in his reply to MoT debate in Lok Sabha, Mr. Nehru rebutted the charge that the stampede was facilitated by rushing people to the mela through special Kumbh trains as the Government wanted to derive political advantage.

Mr. Modi and Mr Nehru are poles apart if one compares their stance on taking holy bath amidst public glare during the Kumbh. A content analysis of Mr. Modi’s speeches on Kumbh and Ganga shows him as great preacher of faith, unlike Mr. Nehru who emerged as a strong advocate of scientific temper.

Mr. Nehru dared to question superstitions including religious ones. He decried dubious role of astrologers in mobilizing crowds to Kumbh with their claims. 

While clarifying that he didn’t want to hurt anyone’s faith, he pointed out he himself has deep emotional connect with the Ganga, Mr. Nehru said: “I made it a point of never bathing there on a sacred occasion, so as not to mislead others.”

He affirmed: “that the stars or the bathing in the Ganga do not affect me in the slightest, but I am very powerfully affected by this huge concourse of human beings, of Indians, wherever they are. I am affected by them, and I want to be in tune with them, to understand them, and I want to influence them in the best manner possible. therefore, I try to go there...not with the idea of merely condemning them. They are a very fine lot. They have their superstitions.”

Mr. Nehru said he agreed with Purshottama Das Tandon “on what he (Mr. Tandon) said just now about this business of people going and imagining that their faith or the country’s faith or any body’s faith’ is governed by the planets, the sun or the moon, and they could wash away their sins in the Ganges, and that kind of thing.”

He continued: “I do not wish to shock anybody’s faith or to pain him, but perhaps many Members in this House know that I seldom let to go an opportunity to escape when I don’t say something against astrologers and the like. I think they are a most undesirable crew. Further, they do a lot of harm to the country.”

Let us now recall Modiji’s forgotten Kumbh-related sermons. Start with his comment made during the course of his speech at a book release event held on 21st December 2011. 

Mr. Modi, as Gujarat CM, stated: “Just think, ‘Kumbh Mela’ is held in our country and during that ‘Kumbh Mela’, crowd equalling to whole Australia’s population gathers on the bank of the Ganga, Just imagine! In spite of this, we never hear about any major chaotic incidence. And at the bottom of it is the religion.”

He continued: “That something inspires, binds and unites them and because of that, the organizers are only catalytic agents in the entire arrangement, the society itself carries this arrangement. And where there is a capability to follow the arrangements, it spreads and develops itself. However large may be its scale, the arrangement progresses and develops.”

Mr. Modi articulated the self-discipline aspect of Kumbh pilgrims in his monthly broadcast, Mann Ki Baat, on 29th January 2017. PM stated: “Usually, we think of ourselves as a highly undisciplined lot, but if we just look at the arrangements made during the Kumbh Melas, which are celebrated for about 40-45 days, these despite being essentially make-shift arrangements, display the great discipline practised by people. This is the inherent strength of a festival.”

When Mr. Modi made this speech, he obviously overlooked several incidents of horrific deaths at stampede at Kumbh melas held every three years by rotation in four cities. He conveniently overlooked demise of devotees at other religious gatherings over the years. Leave aside the death of poor who rush to grab freebies doled out at political events. 

To refresh public memory on this count, it is worth recalling just one instance of two stampede on the same day in two different cities during religious gatherings. On 15th July, 1996, two stampede happened at religious events at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh and Hardwar in Uttarakhand, resulting in several deaths and injuries to many in both cities.

The world was looking at India how it would formulate stampede-free policy for holding religious and political events. Alas, Mr. Modi didn’t unveil such policy while making a statement on success of Maha Kumbh.

The three stampede, many serious road accidents, vandalism and anarchy at railway stations during about one-and-half duration of Maha Kumbh put to question Mr. Modi’s thesis. It is about Hindu faith as driver of discipline among pilgrims. 

One can dismiss all these either as rumours or as tragedies as miniscule when viewed against the scale and speed with which estimated 64 crore pilgrims performed their religious duties at Kumbh. 

Consider now his second sermon on Kumbh. In his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ shared with the nation on 24th April 2016, Mr Modi stated: “I believe that even if the Kumbh mela is a religious and spiritual occasion, we can turn it into a social occasion. We can turn it into an occasion of imbibing good values. It can become a reason to carry good resolutions and good habits to all villages.”

He continued: “We should use each Kumbh Mela to make people aware of how we can increase our value for water, our faith in water; how we can spread the message of water conservation. We should do this.”

One wonders why Modiji avoided using 2019 Kumbh festival as holy platform to administer solemn pledge to pilgrims to make India casteism-free, communalism-free, corruption-free, terrorism-free, poverty-free and clean by 2022. PM had prepared this national pledge for building New India in August 2017. 

Should this not have been the message of 2025 Maha Kumbh for achieving these six goals in 2047 when Viksit Bharat would hopefully emerge and shine like Sun on the world platform? 

The list of Modiji’s sermons pertaining to Kumbh is long. To cut the story short, we can focus on Modiji’s passion to repeatedly use ‘Kumbh’ as precision missile against the Opposition. It is like a living God (that is how Modiji is revered by millions) wielding Brahmastra to decimate Asur-like Opposition. 

Inaugurating 2019 Kumbh-related projects at Prayagraj on 16th December 2018, PM launched a frontal attack on Congress and its leadership. He linked Prayagraj with 1975 emergency. He stated: “Actions of Congress party are proving that it considers itself above country, democracy, judiciary and public.”

Replying to MoT debate on President's address to Parliament on 7th February 2019, Mr. Modi claimed in Lok Sabha that “earlier, Governments were considering ‘Kumbh’ as communal.”

Mr. Modi even has had no hesitation in tacitly blaming Mr. Nehru for 1954 Kumbh stampede with information that doesn’t gel with facts available in official archives.

Addressing public meetings in UP on 1st May 2019, PM said: “Earlier when the Kumbh Mela was organized, there was discussion about the bribery involved in its organization. Even the first PM of the country, Congress’ Jawaharlal Nehru visited Kumbh and a stampede broke out there due to poor arrangements. Despite ruling the country from the panchayats to the Parliament, Congress leaders never compensated or thought about those that were killed in this tragedy.”

Mr. Modi has no doubt utilized ‘Kumbh’ as a catalyst to promote invaluable ideas. An instance in point is the follow-up tweets on his speech at Ujjain on 14th May 2016. Mr. Modi tweeted: “Lets hold Vichar Kumbh every year with devotees...discuss why we need to plant trees, educate girl child: PM to saints” with hashtag #VaicharikMahakumbh. 

The world is waiting to see when PM would take forward this idea to Parliament to hold a Vaicharik Mahakumbh on overlooked findings and recommendations of CAG reports submitted since 2014. Would healthy debate on CAG reports not strengthen the road towards Viksit Bharat? 

On the same day, Mr. Modi also tweeted: “A ‘holier than thou’ attitude is taking us towards conflicts. Lets look within and see how we can grow ourselves.”

These sage words should restrain both the ruling alliance, NDA, and the Opposition from indulging in fresh, bitter war of words inside and outside Parliament.