NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party MP Hema Malini on Tuesday said that the Maha Kumbh stampede, where 30 devotees died, was “not a very big incident” and added that the situation was being “exaggerated”.
“We went to Kumbh, we had a very nice bath. It is right that an incident took place, but it was not a very big incident. I don’t know how big it was. It is being exaggerated,” she said.
Defending the Yogi Adityanath administration, the BJP MP said, “It was very well-managed, and everything was done very well…So many people are coming, it is very difficult to manage but we are doing our best.”
The reaction came after Samajwadi Party MP Akhilesh Yadav criticised the UP government for its mismanagement of the Maha Kumbh crowd and focusing more on self-promotion. Yadav also demanded that the correct numbers of people who died in the stampede should be presented in the Parliament.
“For the Mahakumbh tragedy, there should be strict punitive action against those responsible and those who have hidden the truth should be punished. We ask the double-engine government, if there was no guilt, then why were the figures suppressed, hidden and erased?” he said.
The stampede at the Mahakumbh Mela during the second Shahi Snan on Mauni Amavasya resulted in at least 30 deaths and around 60 injuries.
The opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, have criticised the UP administration for meeting a “VIP” treatment to the celebrities at the cost of common people’s safety.
