Godavari Pushkaralu stampede: Opposition guns for Chandrababu Naidu

Hyderabad: Opposition parties, including the YSRC and Congress, intensified their verbal attack on AP CM N. Chandrababu Naidu for the Rajahmundry Pushkar ghat stampede and alleged that the government’s plan for filming huge crowds in a “fish eye view and pan shot” while Mr Naidu was taking a holy dip at Pushkar ghat resulted in the death of 27 persons. 

 

 

The YSRC and Congress alleged that the National Geographic channel was assigned the task of filming the Godavari Pushkaralu to make a documentary for national and international screening. The YSRC alleged that to make it appear that a large number of people were in a shot while filming during Mr Naidu’s puja, officials ensured more crowd at the Pushkar ghat.

 

YSRC spokesperson Vasireddy Padma said on Wednesday, “It was the multi-camera set-up and the documentary film that was planned to elevate Mr Naidu for the Pushkar arrangements that delayed the milling devotees for three hours resulting in the tragedy. He stayed there for over two hours to enable the cameras to film his devotional fervour while hundreds of pilgrims were left outside for hours and deprived of the opportunity to have a holy dip at the auspicious moment on sunrise.”

 

She alleged, “Mr Naidu stayed back for more than two hours to enable the cameras to film him and his family having the holy bath even as devotees who came from far off places were kept out of bounds. The camera crew which panned every moment of Mr Naidu could not film the agony of the crowd.”

 

Mr Parakala Prabhakar said the “Tourism department had commissioned the documentary shooting. Like any other channel they may be there at all places. The stampede has nothing to do with the documentary shooting. No crowd was stalled for this.”