Inquiry on Pushkaram stampede only an eyewash: YSRCP

Holding the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his publicity mongering responsible for the tragedy at Pushkar ghat in Rajahmundry, YSR Congress has said that the judicial inquiry is only eyewash and the state has imposed restrictions on media as well as part of damage control exercise.

“It was the multi-camera set-up and the documentary film that was planned to elevate Chandrababu Naidu for the Pushkar arrangements that has delayed the milling devotees for three hours at the main Pushkar ghat resulting in the tragedy.He stayed there for over two hours to enable the cameras to film his devotional fervor while hundreds of pilgrims were blocked outside hours together and were deprived of the opportunity to have the holy dip at the auspicious moment on sunrise,” party spokesperson Vasireddy Padma told reporters at Hyderabad on Wednesday.

Chandrababu Naidu, instead of taking to the Saraswathi ghat, reserved for VIPs, has come to the main ghat where general public are supposed to offer puja and stayed back for more than two hours to enable the cameras film him and his family having the holy bath even as the devotees who came far off places were kept out of bounds through barricades.

The camera crew which panned every moment of Chandrababu Naidu could not film the agony of the crowd or the stampede or the rescue operations as they followed the Chief Minister.

The State has imposed restrictions on the media as well and is trying to cover up its failures and planting stories in its favour in the friendly media, she said. No hospital scene was shown, no rescue operation was shown, despite the huge presence of national and regional media which shows the manner in which the issue was either managed or discouraged, she said.

“There is no need for any inquiry as facts are in the open. Chandrababu Naidu should own moral responsibility and stand as accused in the stampede in which over 30 persons were killed and many more injured,” she said.