Opinion: It is necessary to curb the ‘unhindered business of faith’, otherwise Hathras incidents will keep happening

Somewhere devotees suffering from heat faint and die during a Baba’s sermon. Somewhere people die due to being trampled during a stampede in a religious program. More than 100 people have died in a stampede during the satsang of self-proclaimed Baba Narayan Sakar Hari ‘Bhole Baba’ in Hathras. Hospitals are filled with dead bodies. The death toll is constantly increasing. The lives of common people are so cheap that accidents keep happening, deaths keep occurring but nothing happens beyond the ritual of mourning and the bubble-like noise of strict actions. Neither do we learn a lesson nor does the administration. The administration wakes up only after such accidents. Have a look at the major accidents that have happened in such programs in recent years. In February 1997, 206 people died due to fire during a religious program in Baripada, Odisha. In January 1999, 52 people died due to a stampede in the Sabarimala temple. 29 died during a stampede at the Nashik Mahakumbh in 2003. 293 died in a stampede during a religious pilgrimage in Satara, Maharashtra in 2005. 162 died in a stampede at the Naina Devi temple in Himachal in August 2008. 249 people died in a stampede at the Chamunda Devi temple in Jodhpur in September 2008. 65 died in an ashram in Pratapgarh, UP in March 2010. 102 died in a stampede at the Sabarimala temple in 2011. 23 died in a stampede at the Allahabad (now Prayagraj) railway station during the Mahakumbh in February 2013. 121 died in a stampede at a temple in Datia, MP in October 2013. 12 died in a stampede on the Vaishno Devi temple route in January 2022. In March 2023, 36 people died in an accident at a temple in Indore. These are the cases of accidents, especially deaths in stampede, that have happened in religious places or religious programs in the last few decades.

In this country, nothing is cheaper than the lives of common people. We are not saying this without reason. Have you ever wondered why such stampedes happen only in religious programs, religious places or religious gatherings? Be it music concerts or sports stadiums or election rallies…crowds gather there too, but such accidents are not common there. The reason is that there is no mismanagement there, people are not left to their own devices, there are strong arrangements for crowd management. But mismanagement prevails in religious programs, events like Kumbh or Mahakumbh can be exceptions. What happened in Hathras? Not hundreds or thousands but a crowd of one or two lakhs had gathered. There was no systematic entry or exit. Some policemen were deployed in the name of crowd management. Such a huge crowd gathered and not a single ambulance was present at the spot. There was no fire fighting arrangement. A pandal was made in the field. The path leading to the pandal was not known. Even if there was something like a road, it had turned into slippery mud after a little rain. All this was like inviting an accident.

These days, self-proclaimed babas, so-called miracle workers, irrespective of the religion they belong to, have turned religion into a business. They are setting up the market of faith. They are looking at gathering as many people as possible as setting up a shop. The bigger the crowd, the higher the brand value of that so-called baba. Just look at the Hathras case. It is being said that permission was sought from the administration for a crowd of 80 thousand people, but the crowd gathered was in lakhs. The administration also seemed to be in Kumbhakarna’s sleep. After giving permission to such programs, whose responsibility is it to see whether the conditions on which permission has been given are being followed or not. Does the administration forget after giving permission? How was a crowd of one or two lakhs allowed to gather there? The Hathras incident is a direct result of gross administrative negligence.

But is administrative negligence the only reason for such accidents? No, it is not so. Even if all the necessary arrangements are made, there is no guarantee that such accidents will not happen. The reason for this is the madness of the crowd, it is passion. Faith is fine, but blind faith is dangerous. Faith should not be tested on the touchstone of logic, but madness in the hope of a miracle cannot be called faith. There is a competition among the followers to put the dust of the feet of the self-proclaimed Baba of Hathras on their heads. Leave aside the dust under the shoe marks on the ground while walking, there is a competition to put even the rut on the head through which the wheels of Baba’s car pass. If this is not madness, then what is it? It is being told that there is a crowd of people to take water from the hand pumps installed in Baba’s ashram. There is a hope that the water of the hand pump will do miracles. It will defeat sorrows. It will fulfill wishes. When will people finally understand that this madness is not right. One of the reasons for the stampede in Hathras is also being told that when Baba started leaving after finishing the satsang, the crowd went out of control to touch his/her ‘charanraj’ on their heads. A stampede broke out. On top of that, due to the mud and slippery road after the rain, people kept slipping. They kept falling on top of one another and the pandal became like a stage for the naked dance of death.

To prevent a repeat of the Hathras incident, it is important that the ‘unhindered business of faith’ be curbed. Baba will try to use the crowd as a tool to increase his/her brand value, but this has to be curbed. It is important that a restriction be imposed on the gathering of people in such programs. A certain number has to be fixed so that permission to gather a larger crowd is not given at any cost. But the most important thing is for the administration to wake up from its Kumbhakarani sleep. Common people cannot be left to die like this.