NO MATTER the fact that the Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj culminated with a record 66.21 crore pilgrims having visited the place and taking the holy dip, the details of the massive management effort will keep ringing people’s ears for long. If sheer numbers of pilgrims made the world sit up and take notice, the details of every arrangement made by the organisers to make the great event successful should make all management gurus to sit up and take notice. The world has not seen any such massive event management so far.

 

Never ! True, technologies of every kind were pressed into service to ensure the event’s success -- from simple communication devices to the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) computation to manage numbers of every service deployed for the pilgrims’ convenience. Possibly, the world did not see any management effort of such scale even in World Wars where everything was of unheard of proportions until then. The Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj -- held after 144 years -- surpassed that effort by many multiples. Factually speaking, this successful management should be converted into a complete book of case-studies of each of the verticals in the wide-ranging portfolios of services offered at the great congregation.

 

The numbers of railway trains that brought pilgrims to the Maha Kumbh from different places, and took them back, the numbers of flights airlines undertook to transport lakhs of devotees to Prayagraj and back, the numbers of Government and private buses used for the purpose, the numbers of private vehicles people used to go to the Maha Kumbh ... every detail was of mind-boggling proportion. And what mattered most was the marshalling of all these different services into a neat and manageable pattern was one task that calls for a separate case-study . What must not be missed from noticing is the use of the massive manpower deployed to manage the Maha Kumbh. Those numbers run into lakhs, all right. But what those people did is beyond numbers to explain. Most of these people deployed in various services -- including the security and police personnel and the cleaning staff-- had to satisfy themselves without a holy dip for themselves. They were so close to the water-body where crores of people were taking their holy dips, but most of them could not even touch water. So intensely engaged they were in managing the task at hand. It is against this background that the remark of a Police officer working at the water’s edge for full 45 days assumes importance. He said, in effect, that he was “happy that so many lakhs crores of people could take the holy dip because he and his people were at work.

 

Through each of those dips, all of us took our dips vicariously”. This was true for almost everybody of the lakhs of people pressed into the management of the Maha Kumbh. But then, this sacrifice also brings to fore a core principle of the art and science of management -- that the success of any management stands on the shoulders of people who make sacrifices so that others could take the benefit of their contribution. This thought also stands enshrined in the philosophy of leadership and management. Everywhere in the world, great events are made possible because some people rise above the general thought and deliver the goods for larger benefits. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and every arm of his Government deserves full appreciation for the successful conduct of the great event of Maha Kumbh. In that effort, the very critical component came from none other than Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi who lent every possible support to Yogi Adityanath. Together, the two saw the dream of human history’s greatest event so far, and made it work through tireless leadership.