To this day we don’t know the exact number of those who died at Prayagraj on January 29. The figures “30 dead and 60 injured” provided by the Uttar Pradesh Police were the ones that the mainstream media chose to run with. Some added, for abundant caution, terms like “at least” and “more than” because the police data somehow seemed too pat, especially as other journalists, less yoked to power, had counted at least double that number of dead bodies. Another piece of information that was intriguingly missing from the narrative was the number of those who were untraceable. https://thewire.in/media/backstory-ways-in-which-news-of-the-stampedes-has-been-made-to-vanish-in-double-time
If the numbers were vaporised out of the reportage, so were the very sites of death and destruction. Before a proper forensic examination could be even conducted, bulldozers were brought in to carry away mangled human remains and personal effects of the dead, making it impossible to do a proper reconstruction of the sequence of events that had led to the calamity. News did come in of another stampede, albeit a smaller one, but here again the prompt cleaning up operations removed any evidence of it.
If the story goes against the establishment’s interests, place hurdles in reporters’ access
By the time the New Delhi Railway Station stampede had occurred a fortnight later, it appeared that the Modi government had learnt several lessons from the Prayagraj events. Here you had pro-active attempts to keep all media attention at bay. As bodies were taken to the Lok Nayak Jaya Prakash Hospital, yellow police barricades quickly ringfenced it and police personnel stopped mediapersons in their tracks as they sought to go in.
If the story potentially ignites public outrage, neutralise public outrage through prompt and targeted action
Even as people were searching for their missing relatives, some post-mortems had been completed, and all evidence of the stampede removed.
Simultaneously, relatives were strongly discouraged from talking to the media.
by Pamela Philipose
22/02/2025