Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched the "Atma Nirbhar Uttar Pradesh Rozgar Abhiyan" through video conferencing. While speaking at the event, PM Modi did not miss the chance to target former PM Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in his speech.
PM Modi, while lauding UP CM Yogi Adityanath's responce to the pandemic, criticised the handling of 1954 Kumbh Mela stampede without naming then PM Jawaharlal Nehru.
He said that the vast preparations made by the Uttar Pradesh chief minister saved at least 85,000 lives in this pandemic, something that was unthinkable before 2017. He went further and recalled a stampede in Allahabad during the Kumbh Mela which killed many pilgrims.
Modi said, "There was a day when the MP from Allahabad was the Prime Minister of the country and a stampede had happened in Kumbh Mela, killing thousands. At that time, the government had used all its weight to hide the death toll."
This is not the first time Modi has targeted the Congress and Nehru over its handling of 1954 Kumbh Mela stampede.
In May 2019 too, Modi, while lauding the arrangements by the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh for the Kumbh Mela, had said, "When Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was prime minister, thousands of people were killed in the Kumbh stampede in Allahabad."
He had also alleged that for saving the image of the then government, the media, too, had suppressed the news.
"The stampede victims’ families names were never mentioned and not a single rupee was given to them (as compensation). It was insensitive and this sin was committed by the country’s first prime minister,” Modi had said.
(With inputs from agencies)
