Kumbh Mela: RSS questions Azam Khan's appointment as management incharge

NEW DELHI: Azam Khan may have resigned as in-charge of Maha Kumbh management owning moral responsibility for the stampede at Allahabad station that claimed 37 lives, but the RSS today questioned the appointment of the Muslim minister as in-charge of the mela in the first place.

In the editorial of its latest edition, RSS mouthpiece Organiser said, "In UP, the person in charge of the Maha Kumbh, that fetches crores to the exchequer, is a Muslim minister.

"It is not anybody's case that the tragedy would not have occurred if it is was a Hindu minister. But the government to begin with could have had a better representative for the task."

The editorial subtitled "What was Azam Khan doing at the Kumbh" further says the minister incharge should have been a person who would have been "empathetic, involved and committed to the pilgrimage". RSS maintained that the minister, Azam Khan, is "none of these".

Azam Khan, a senior minister in the Akhilesh Yadav-led UP government, was in-charge of the Maha Kumbh. He had stepped down from the responsibility after the stampede last Sunday but his resignation was not accepted by Yadav and he was reinstated. RSS has criticised this decision.

"The UP government, sickeningly heartless it is, announced that Azam Khan would continue with the assignment as he was not responsible for what happened at the Railway station," the editorial said, ruing that after the stampede Khan was "hardly visible" to give answers for the tragedy.