Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, criticised massively over her “Mrityu Kumbh” statement, issued a stinging retort today, naming her Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath and citing his “abuses”. She also said her criticism has been “distorted” and converted into “complete lies”.  

“No matter what abuses Yogi Saheb flings at me, I will not get blisters. I respect him as a Chief Minister,” Ms Banerjee said at a press conference. 

“But I would say the families that are affected, you have not even given postmortem certificates, or death certificates. We have conducted postmortems of the bodies that reached here. I don’t know what happened in other states. And if you have announced compensation, you should give them the money,” the Chief Minister added.

Her response comes a day after Yogi Adityanath, while addressing the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, had targetted the critics.

At Kumbh, “Vultures got dead bodies. Pigs got filth… whereas sensitive people got a beautiful picture of relationships, traders got business, devotees got clean arrangements,” he had said amid much table thumping by MLAs.

Ms Banerjee today took a 360-degree view, comparing the situation in her state that also sees much crowds and the preparation that goes into handling it. 

One should always consider one’s capacity, she said — “How many can go, how many can stay.. preparations that are necessary even for a wedding feast”. What is not needed is “hype like 144 years… Kumbh happened in 2014 also,” she added.  

“That’s what we meant but many have distorted it and many have said dreadful things. I will say what they have been saying are untruths. Complete lies. I have never disrespected any religion in my life and will never do that,” she said.

Bengal, she added, also handles events that involve huge crowds — like the Gangasagr mela and the Durga puja. “We do not sleep for days… We keep an eye on things. We plan minutely, else the people suffer,” she added. 

Even so, incidents can occur, and when they do, “We have to again plan and deal effectively with the aftermath,” she said. 

Citing the huge fire at a Kolkata hospital, she said the government worked overnight and conducted postmortems of the people who died and handed the reports, compensation and letters for jobs to the families the next day.   

Ms Banerjee’s remark on “Mrityu Kumbh”-a reference to the stampede that killed at least 30 people and injured more than 60 – had  hugely upset the BJP, coming amid a tide of Opposition criticism.