MP temple stampede: As polls approach, Cong plays 'body politics'

The congress party is receiving a good amount of criticism from various quarters for its instant politicisation of the Madhya Pradesh temple stampede at Ratangarh in Datia, in which 115 people lost their lives.

Even before the search-and-rescue operation in the river was officially called off, senior Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and others were already blaming the BJP state government for corruption among police and administrative officers. Soon after, spokesperson Ajay Maken chimed in, demanding Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s resignation.

Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur called the leaders scoring political points with the tragedy in the backdrop “vultures”.

Historian-political commentator Ramchandra Guha called Union Minister’s attempt to contrast, for television viewers, the lives lost in MP and those saved on Odisha, as “truly contemptible”.

Crude as it was, the Congressmen were not backing off. Asked on a television show what good such political point-scoring could possibly achieve, Congress spokesperson Anant Gadgil said it was inexplicable that a government headed by the same chief minister had not learnt its lessons after a tragedy at the very same spot some years back. Elsewhere, other leaders parried – The BJP did it too, they countered, when Vijay Bahuguna was at the receiving end of sustained BJP fire for the Uttarakhand cloudburst and floods.

The Congress was obviously executing a well-planned one-voiced criticism of Shivraj Singh Chouhan as his government went through the ignominy of a repeat tragedy at the same spot.

The tenor and aggression from the Congress appear to have come after some last-minute party building efforts in the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, following the appointment of Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia as the poll campaign head, and the likely chief ministerial candidate too. For his part, Scindia has displayed in rallies in the state that he is willing to do the down and dirty of electoral politics, his team of campaigners raking up a former BJP minister’s involvement in a sex scandal on one occasion.

In fact, the Congress campaign in Madhya Pradesh has been growing increasingly shrill. Only a week before the stampede, the party was demanding that the state president of the BJP Narendra Singh Tomar be prosecuted for releasing an advertisement on Gandhi Jayanti with an image of the Mahatma, alleging that the party was using the Mahatma’s image for political gains.

On the Ratangarh episode, the BJP responded in equal measure through Monday evening. “Congress leaders from Kamal Nath to Jyotiraditya Scindia, Digvijaya Singh, Ajay Maken and Satyavrat Chaturvedi are doing politics over dead bodies. We condemn this attitude… What needs to be discussed at the moment are the measures that should be taken to deal with it,” said BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar at hurriedly convened a press conference.

Then the party dipped into the Congress’ armoury, releasing figures countering the COngress’ claims – 106 lives were lost in Sabarimala tragedy in Kerala, 350 pilgrims died at Mandhara Devi in Maharashtra, 63 peoples lost their lives in Kunda in UP, 40 people died in a similar stampede in Kumbh Mela at Nasik, they said. All non-BJP ruled states.

As polls approach, voters haven’t heard the last of what one tweet called body-politics.