TMC, INDIA partners file motion in RS seeking debate on Kumbh deaths
Times of India | 3 February 2025
123 Kolkata: Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha deputy leader Sagarika Ghose, along with MPs from Samajwadi Party, Congress, AAP, NCP, and Shiv Sena (UBT), has filed a motion under Rule 267 in the Rajya Sabha, urging chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to pause all work and allow a discussion on the Prayagraj Maha Kumbh stampede deaths.
The joint move in the upper house comes even as several INDIA bloc parties have been gunning against each other in the run-up to the Feb 5 Delhi assembly polls. Interestingly, TMC MPs Shatrughan Sinha and Mahua Moitra have campaigned for AAP candidates for Delhi assembly, and Samajwadi Party has also thrown its weight behind AAP.
Rule 267 has provisions to take up urgent discussions by suspending zero hour and question hour. The MPs have urged a holding of discussions amid reports of Kumbh stampede death toll mismatch and bodies being sent back to states without postmortem and valid death certificates.
According to Trinamool seniors, the Rajya Sabha chairman had earlier allowed a 267 motion in the ongoing Budget session after BJP had sought discussions on Jan 27 following a house collapse in Delhi's Burari, which led to the death of five. Opposition netas said the discussion was allowed on Jan 29 for an hour. "All deaths are equally painful. If the Burari issue can be discussed, and rightly so, why should not the Kumbh stampede deaths be discussed too? UP govt has officially said that 30 people died, while the figures are over three times that number," a Trinamool senior claimed.
If the discussion on Maha Kumbh stampede is allowed, Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav will be the opposition's first speaker, said sources.
A senior Trinamool neta said: "Four bodies of Kumbh stampede victims were sent back to Bengal without death certificates and postmortem. Bengal govt had to step in and complete the legal formalities necessary for cremation. Without these, there wouldn't have been cremations, let alone compensations. We have come across reports that this has been the issue in other states as well. There should have been more accountability on the part of UP govt. We have also come across reports of a second stampede in Kumbh."