Abhishek Banerjee on Friday asserted that the saffron ecosystem would have demanded President’s rule by now, had a Mahakumbh stampede-like tragedy taken place in Bengal or some other state not ruled by the BJP.

The national general secretary of the Trinamool Congress held the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh responsible for the stampede and accused it of prioritising publicity over planning.

He said there were fears of the accurate death toll from the tragedy rising to over 100 while hinting at attempts by the BJP to manipulate the casualty count.

“First of all, the incident is most saddening. You have seen that Mahakumbh has been going on for so many days and we all know that Mahakumbh comes once in every 144 years. But if so many people are visiting, there has to be adequate arrangements. While the arrangements and planning were insufficient and shoddy, publicity was peaking,” said Abhishek at the Calcutta airport, two days after his aunt, chief minister Mamata Banerjee drew a comparison between the arrangements there and those for the Gangasagar Mela in Bengal.

The attacks from Trinamool’s top two suggest their keenness to put salt to the smarting Mahakumbh wound of hardline Hindutva poster boy Adityanath, as practically no proverbial stone was left unturned to ensure the use of this Hindu festival as a platform to elevate the Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s position as heir apparent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“They (the BJP-led government in Uttar Pradesh) only cared about marketing. If this happened in any non-BJP state, they would have called for Presidential rule,” he added, on his way to Delhi to attend the Budget session of Parliament. “Even we organise the Gangasagar Mela. Our government has been in power for nearly 14 years. But if something like this were to ever happen here — I certainly hope not — they would have been pushing for Presidential rule.”

The Diamond Harbour MP tore into the BJP over the Mahakumbh mayhem that claimed at least five Bengal lives, and wondered why the official death toll was yet to
be issued.

“From what I got to know after speaking to some of the journalists there, it shouldn’t be surprising if the number crosses 100,” he said.

“There is no facility for the poor. Whereas, we see special treatment for the VIPs and VVIPs.... It is extremely unfortunate because everyone has the same rights,”
he added.

Abhishek said for millions of the elderly and the poor, this was probably their only opportunity to visit the place — besides the fact that it was a once-every-144-years occasion — but alleged that there were no provisions for them.

“Whereas, industrialists are enjoying privileges and special treatment... as are leaders and ministers. This is what happens when publicity surpasses planning. I hope that they will take a lesson from this,” he said.

“But the BJP never learns from their mistakes. They think that they own the country and the media is their puppet,” added the MP.

Budget ‘hopeless’

The Trinamool leader also said he harboured zero hope towards the provisions
of the Union budget, simply because it was yet another one by the Narendra
Modi government.

“This Centre has failed to provide relief to the poor or the middle class in its budgets. I really don’t have any hopes from the budget for as long as this government remains in power,” he said.

“The rich keep getting richer and the poor, poorer. They are an anti-people government,” added Abhishek.

Asked about the likely outcome of the Delhi Assembly elections next week, the MP — whose party has thrown its weight behind Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP — said: “We want all those fighting against the BJP to grow stronger, anywhere in the nation.”

“We want the strongest anti-BJP force there, the AAP, to win,” he said, going on to mount a scathing offensive on the BJP over the misuse of central agencies to keep the duly elected AAP-led state government from functioning for the past five years.