How did the Kumbh Mela attendance record drop to 21 Lakh from 49 Lakh?

Image Courtesy:ndtv.com

The Uttarakhand High Court had recently said: “first we make the mistake of holding Kumbh Mela, then there is Char Dham; Why do we repeatedly embarrass ourselves”. The HC had berated the government for not being adequately prepared and ignoring the scientific community’s warning about the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. In April, media reports stated that at least “9.1 million pilgrims visited Haridwar for the Mahakumbh”. The details were shared by the organisers themselves. The Kumbh Mela, then made international news as violation of Covid-19 protocols among the massive crowds became apparent, even as Covid-19 surged across the country.

On April 27, over 25,000 devotees and 1,000 seers participated in the final Shahi Snan (royal or most holy dip) of the Kumbh Mela 2021. These were said to be some sort of restricted crowds after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal on April 18 that Kumbh celebrations be only “symbolic”. Hours after the Shahi Snan concluded, Haridwar’s district administration announced a ‘corona curfew’ from April 28 to the morning of May 3. However, by then hundreds were reported to have tested Covid-19 positive at the mela.

By May, those returning from the mela had possibly begun spreading the infection, as they travelled back to their hometowns across the country. A BBC report was one of the first to use the word “super spreader” for the event. It listed states that had traced some new Covid-19 infections to Kumbh Mela returnees testing positive. The report put on record that “Authorities in Rajasthan blame the pilgrims for the rapid spread of Covid cases in the state, especially in rural areas”. Kumbh returnees had also tested positive in Odisha, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, even in the neighbouring country Nepal, where the former king and queen were infected.

However, by the end of May, the Uttarakhand state government officials, “after a detailed review,” have assessed that the attendance figure was “almost 70%” down, to an estimated 15 lakh, for the three crucial days of the Kumbh: April 12, 13, and 14. According to the government a total of 49 lakh devotees had taken a dip in the Ganga at Har Ki Pauri and linked ghats in Haridwar but for these days, Sanjay Gunjyal, Inspector General of Police, Kumbh Mela, told the media that: “the footfall on April 12 was only 21 lakh; on April 13 around 3 lakh and on April 14, about 12 lakh.” These ‘new’ numbers are much lower than what the state government itself had claimed earlier.

In April, according to an Indian Express report, Uttarakhand had said “over 31 lakh people took a dip on the second shahi shan on April 12; 4.5 lakh on April 13; and over 13.5 lakh on April 14.”

However, according to Gunjyal: “The earlier data was based on headcount. But the data for April 12 had been miscalculated by adding data from other days as well.” According to the report these low numbers are “based on a review of all key mobility indicators, which include occupancy figures for all hotels in the district, vacancies in registered parking lots, cellphone presence accessed from mobile towers, and passenger traffic for vehicles and on all trains to and from Haridwar.” But then what was the head count all about? Who were those people and where did they disappear?

According to Uttarakhand Congress Senior Vice-President Suryakant Dhasmana quoted by the IE, the state government exaggerated the footfall data to show it successfully organised a grand mela. He said “footfall was less than the figures claimed by the government. With such exaggerated data, the state government tried to cover-up its failure in making preparations, essential to protect devotees from Covid.” he said. When contacted, Cabinet Minister and government spokesperson Subodh Uniyal said figures of footfall announced by administration were correct. “But it is also true that footfall was less on shahi snan this time as compared to previous Kumbh. Common people came in very less numbers, mainly saints who stayed during Kumbh,” he said.

It is important to put this in perspective with what happened in March 2020. The state and Union government had cracked down on the Tablighi Jamaat HQ in Delhi, and blamed its annual event for the spread of Covid-19 in India. There were around 1,000 members of the Jamat who had been stranded at its headquarters Nizamuddin Markaz, in Delhi after the sudden declaration of the lockdown. The Delhi government called it a hot spot. Soon it was called a ‘super spreader’ event, as mainstream media began reporting how Markaz attendees had travelled to different parts of the country from Delhi. Tablighi Jamaat, and Muslims by extension were blamed for spreading Covid-19 in India as a full blown media trial ensued, followed by government crackdown, arrests, vilification, violence and hate speech. After 11 state governments also filed 205 FIRs against 2,765 foreign nationals for allegedly violating visa terms and intentionally disregarding Covid-19 guidelines, not one member of the Tablighi Jamaat, a back-to-roots Islamic movement, was convicted by any court. An analysis of these multiple orders revealed how the Courts have seriously questioned the charges invoked against them, quashing the cases filed against them are slowly emerging.

A year later in April 2021, Uttarakhand CM Tirath Singh Rawat decaled: “Don’t compare Kumbh Mela to Markaz event,” even as images of thick crowds of thousands of devotees, many without masks flooded social media. When reminded that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politicians had raised a hue and cry on the Nizamuddin Markaz of the Tablighi Jamaat as being a super spreader. Rawat laughed it off saying there was no comparison and the “Kumbh did not have any outsiders” but “our own pilgrims”. “That time there was no checking, and this time we know who came when. That was a small space, Kumbh is a massive area. This is a matter of ‘astha’ faith”. Around 32 lakh devotees were at Haridwar for the first shahi snan on March 11, Mahashivaratri it was reported. Some of these numbers, it seems, have been washed away too.