‘Political class should stay away from religious events’

Death of pilgrims at such congregations painful: Narayana

K. Narayana. File

CPI national secretary K. Narayana, in an open letter to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, has underlined the need for the present rulers and politicians to dissociate themselves from direct involvement in mass religious and devotional events.

“It is painful to see so many innocent people dying due to lack of safety measures at mass gatherings. This is happening frequently now because of politicisation and commercialisation of people’s beliefs,” he said, releasing copies of his letter to the media during his visit to Gudur in the district on Tuesday.

Mr. Narayana deplored that right from the Prime Minister to several Chief Ministers, nobody was an exception to this “unconstitutional” attempt to take advantage of religious matters in open indifference to people’s interests.

Referring to the recent incident during the Krishna river ‘harati’, Mr. Narayana said 21 pilgrims had died, and three of them were his closest relatives, which caused loss to three generations in their respective families in one stroke.

He also recalled the death of 29 pilgrims in a stampede during the Godavari pushkarams in Rajamahendravaram.

Dig at KCR

Mr. Narayana made a special mention of the yagams performed by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao, stating that huge quantities of ghee were wasted and crores of public funds spent on jewellery for temples while ignoring people’s interests.