PRAYAGRAJ: Indian officials downplayed a deadly stampede at the world`s largest religious festival this week because they wanted to `protect the public image of a potential successor` to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an analyst says.

Wednesday`s stampede took place at the Kumbh Mela, a 12-yearly festival of ritual bathing thathasbeen heldinthe northern city of Prayagraj for more than a millennium.

Although deadly incidents are regrettably common at public gatherings in India, where this week differed from past stampedes was a concerted effort by authorities to understateitsseverity_or deny outright that it happened.

Officials insisted for hours that no one was seriously injured, despite graphic television footage from the scene, that the situation was under control, and that suggestions to the contrary amounted to rumour-mongering.

They waited for almost a day before confirming that 30 people had been killed in the chaotic predawn crowd surge at a festival that has drawn tens of millions of pilgrims from around India.

`They underplayed it.

They said it was a `stampede-like situation`. What does that mean? It is either a stampede or it is not,` Hartosh Singh Bal, executive editor of Indian news magazine Caravan, said.

`Officials on the ground in India just don`t do things on their own,` he said. `Everything happens according to orders from the top.

Responsibility for stag-ing of the Kumbh event -and the unfathomable numbers of devotees who visit over its six-week duration this year fell on officials in Uttar Pradesh, a state home to more people than Brazil.

Uttar Pradesh is run by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, 52, a firebrand former monk who has become one of the leading figures in Narendra Modi`s Bharatiya Janata Party and is seen as a potential future prime minister.

Adityanath had taken steps to make the Kumbh Mela a sign of the success of his stewardship, with billboards showing the smiling saffron robe-clad leader a ubiquitous feature of the festival.

The Indian Express newspaper reported last month that his government had recruited `digital warriors` a coterie of social media influencers to publicise the good work of police at the festival and combat `fake news`.

New Delhi-based writer and analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay said Adityanath`s political appeal, like Modi`s, rested on being seen as a custodian of the Hindu faith.

`The success of Kumbh without any blemish was very important,` he said.

`But now, there is a blemish.

`There was no stampede` Authorities scrambled to put their own spin on events as news of a predawn stampede spread on Wednesday.

`There was no stampede. It was just overcrowding, due to which some devotees got injured,` a police official told one briefing nearly 12 hours af ter the fatal crush.

Another officer insisted to media later that afternoonthatnoonehadbeen seriously injured at all.

Adityanath, the chief minister, himself said the situation was under control and told the public `not to believe any kind of rumours`.

The festival`s officialcommunications team continued to give regular updates on the number of pilgrims participating in bathing rituals, but ignored requests for information about how many had been caught in the stampede.

Police finally confirmed af ter sunset that 30 people had been killed and dozens more injured when the day`s rituals were drawing to an end.

The long information blackout fuelled scepticism that it reflected the true extent of the disaster, with several media outlets suggesting the toll was higher.

`Heads should roll` The police announcement of the death toll was accompanied by an official statement praising officers for acting quickly to prevent the situation from spiralling out of control.

`Eyewitnesses praised the swift action... their timely intervention prevented a major disaster, the statement said.

The official account has been vehemently contradicted by witnesses.

`It took an hour and a half for police to come and get her body,` Tarun Bose, whose relative was trampled to death on Wednesday, said. `There were no police officers around during the accident.

Ashish Tripathi, a resident of Prayagraj, said it was clear festival organisers had failed in their duties to anticipate crowd numbers.

`Heads should obviously roll for this tragedy, he said.

Tripathi said he felt sorry for those killed in the stampede who, like millions of other Hindu faithful, had travelled to bathe in the rivers running by the city in the belief it would free them from the cosmic cycles of death and rebirth.

`Some people say that dying here in Prayagraj gives you salvation,` he said. `Not like this.`-AFP