If anything, the data suggests the contrary. They were testing people extensively in Haridwar when the event took place. The cases that were detected from the city during the time the festival was happening represented less than 1% of the total number of cases happening in India.
> Medical workers conducted 2,36,751 tests over the five-day period in the mela site. Out of these, 1,701 came out positive for coronavirus.
For context, at this time, India was already registering over 200,000 new covid cases a day. The test positivity rate (<1%) from the mela site is also much lower than most other parts of the country (~5-10%).
Basically, covid had already spread so much in India by the time Kumbh Mela happened that the cases from there were only a drop in the bucket.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-over-1700...
> Medical workers conducted 2,36,751 tests over the five-day period in the mela site. Out of these, 1,701 came out positive for coronavirus.
For context, at this time, India was already registering over 200,000 new covid cases a day. The test positivity rate (<1%) from the mela site is also much lower than most other parts of the country (~5-10%).
Basically, covid had already spread so much in India by the time Kumbh Mela happened that the cases from there were only a drop in the bucket.