Journalism of Courage
In an apparent damage control exercise after the stampede at Ratangarh Mata temple,the BJP on Monday invoked a slew of such incidents that took place in across the country in the past to suggest that such tragedies at religious sites should be considered a national calamity against which the Centre should prepare a national plan.
Ratangarh is not an isolated incident. Every year such tragedies happen at different pilgrimages,which must be avoided. Over 100 lives were lost in Shabarimala tragedy,350 pilgrims died in at Mandhara Devi in Maharashtra,63 lost their lives in Kunda in UP,and 40 died in a stampede in Kumbh Mela at Nasik. The Central government must treat this as a national calamity and plan a fool-proof mechanism to avoid recurrence of such accidents, BJP spo-kesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
He,however,accused the Congress of playing politics over corpses and asked the party to avoid blame game.
