Maha Kumbh stampede: Four from Belagavi, including mother-daughter duo die
Belagavi: Four people from the district, including a mother-daughter duo, are reported to have died in the stampede at the Maha Kumbh festival at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday.
The deceased devotees are 50-year-old Jyoti Hattarwad, who was a BJP worker; her daughter 25-year-old Megha Hattarwad; 60-year-old Arun Narayan Khoparde, and 45-year-old Mahadevi Hanumant Bavanur, all of whom are residents of Belagavi district. The local police officers have confirmed the deaths, a report in The Hindu has said.
A group of devotees from Belagavi had traveled to Prayagraj on January 26 through Sairath Travel Agency to participate in the Maha Kumbh.
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Jyoti Hattarwad’s family members could not trace Jyoti or Megha since the morning on Wednesday on account of lack of mobile network connectivity in Prayagraj. Later, however, another resident of Belagavi, who had accompanied them to the festival, called and informed the family members of the death of Jyothi and Megha after being injured in the stampede.
MLA Asif (Raju) Sait visited the families of Khoparde and Bavanur and spoke to the family members.
Belagavi Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Roshan has urged people not to panic, adding that the officials of the district were in constant touch with senior revenue and police officers in Uttar Pradesh. The South Western Railway had established contact with the Uttar Pradesh counterparts, the officer has added.
The Deputy Commissioner also said that they had received complaints of not being able to trace some people and attributed the problem to the huge crowds and the lack of network connectivity. The district authorities were trying to help the families find the missing members, Roshan assured.
He also told the people that complaints about missing persons (at Maha Kumbh) could be lodged at the office of the DC in Belagavi.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
