- 8 months ago
A stampede at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru during RCB's IPL victory celebration has resulted in at least 11 deaths and 50 injuries. The incident raises questions about crowd management, planning, and accountability. The Karnataka government faces criticism for inadequate preparations, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claiming it was a private event. The tragedy has cast a shadow over RCB's long-awaited IPL triumph.
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00:00Okay, let me raise some big questions.
00:02Why did the celebrations continue despite the stampede that took place outside?
00:06Why didn't the Karnataka government anticipate the large surge of crowds?
00:10How can they distance themselves from it?
00:12Why weren't proper crowd control measures taken by the local administration?
00:17Who takes responsibility for the lack of planning?
00:19Where does the buck stop? That's the big question.
00:21Will accountability be now fixed for the disaster or will we see passing the buck?
00:26Particularly with the Congress government there in Karnataka.
00:28Joining me now, special guest Syed Kirmani, 1983 World Cup winning team member.
00:33One of the proud sons of Karnataka cricket, Sanjay Sahai.
00:37Former IPS officer, ex-ADGP Karnataka.
00:40Revati Ashok is CEO and managing trustee of BPAC that looks for a better Bangalore.
00:46Kuldeep Dantewata is co-founder and CEO, Reap Benefit.
00:49I appreciate all citizens joining me at this moment.
00:52But I first want to come to you, Sanjay Sahai.
00:55Why do you accept that this has been a gross negligence?
00:59You've got lakhs of people at a stadium and you just don't have adequate police control.
01:03Surely police intelligence has grossly failed.
01:06First and foremost, I think in the press conference with the Honourable Chief Minister addressed,
01:12he is claiming that the event in Chinaswami Stadium was a private event.
01:17Point number one.
01:18Point number two, he says that two to three lakh people came where the capacity was 35,000.
01:24How do three lakh people trickle in without the police knowing of it?
01:28Number three, when he was ordering the magisterial inquiry, he somehow, I think he was giving a direction to that magisterial inquiry as nothing great would come out of it.
01:39So as you see, as any layman would see, we don't need any prism of a police officer.
01:45That there was barely any planning as far as the Chinaswami Stadium.
01:49No, so where does the buck stop?
01:51Where does the buck stop?
01:52Chief Minister Siddharamaya?
01:54Does it stop with Mr. D.K. Shivkumar who is the minister and judge of Bangalore?
01:57Does it stop with RCB?
01:59Does it stop with the police?
02:01Razdev, I will not be able to tell you exactly whether it stops with D.K. Shivkumar or Mr. Siddharamaya or whosoever.
02:09All I can tell you is that security is the job of the police.
02:14And even if it is a private event, and even if they have not taken permission, they were aware of the fact that this event is happening, period.
02:24And if this event was happening, they could have either stopped or they could have made arrangements to a level that nothing of this nature could have happened.
02:32The traffic was, management was not in place.
02:35People came from all over the site.
02:37There is absolutely nothing.
02:38You see the visuals.
02:40Inclusive of the ambulance.
02:41So, if the security, for security, not only in Karnataka, anywhere in this country, security, the bug stops with the state government.
02:50Okay.
02:50And with the state government, and if you said they did not inform us, it was a private event, then what is the state government doing?
02:57What is the state?
02:58No, no, what kind of private event?
02:59I am sorry, private event where Mr. D.K. Shivkumar, Mr. Siddharamaya are celebrating with the players.
03:04Once in Vidant Sauda, once in Chinnaswami Stadium, this private event is all very well.
03:09At the end of the day, it involves the citizens of Karnataka who are public citizens.
03:13They have been invited to come to an event.
03:15Rajdeep.
03:16So, let's not, this private event is a bogus, bogus angle.
03:19I'll tell you, I'll tell you, I'll make two, three very small points.
03:23Events have taken over our existence.
03:25And as the IPL chairman was talking about, they are only bothered about the money flow.
03:31Crash commercialization, nothing else.
03:34And lame excuses are the order of the day.
03:38So, the capability to create man-made fatal accidents and incidents and able to get away with it,
03:44I think that is the crux of the problem.
03:46Point well taken, Dr. Sai.
03:50In fact, I want to turn to Syed Kirmani.
03:52Crash commercialization of the event.
03:54When the IPL takes place, money is flowing.
03:57You've got super-rich cricketers.
03:59You've got the netas wanting to associate with the winning team.
04:03The point is, when you won the 83 World Cup before that, there used to be large crowds.
04:08My father won in 1971, England.
04:10I've seen crowds surging at the Mumbai airport.
04:13But now something seems to have reached a stage where the fan frenzy was such
04:18that a government doesn't anticipate your first reactions, Syed Kirmani,
04:22to what has really cast a shadow over RCB's victory.
04:25Firstly, my condolences to the bereaved families, right?
04:32And now, this was a deadly welcome of IPL to the IPL champions of 2025.
04:41Now, in our time, there was no such media hype.
04:45There was no television.
04:46There was no such thing which could lead to such kind of speculation, which is going on right now.
04:53So, on that count, I suppose it is RCB wanted, waited for 17 long years to be the champions.
05:04Now, the organizers, whoever it may be, they should have also waited for a while to settle down things
05:12and then organize a wonderful show to felicitate these great heroes of RCB.
05:18Very good point. You're saying if you want to have a celebration, plan it out well.
05:23Don't do it the very next morning within 24 hours.
05:26Absolutely. Absolutely.
05:28Because there was no time for these players all to settle down.
05:32Immediately, they took a flight back into Bangalore.
05:35And you see, it was too early to make required arrangements.
05:41That's a very, very good point you make there.
05:45I want to turn to Revati Ashok.
05:47Revati Ashok, your CEO and managing trustee BPAC.
05:50This is a group which is designed to make Bangalore a better city.
05:53These images are going to do Bangalore no credit.
05:56I mean, this is the city which has seen itself as the IT software capital, India's 21st century city.
06:01What do we see?
06:02Very, very poor crowd management fan frenzy reaching a point where a slab collapses.
06:10More than a dozen people, at least 11 are feared dead.
06:14I mean, what does this do to Bangalore?
06:15What does it say about the quality of local governance and administration?
06:19Yes, Rajdeep.
06:23First, let me take a moment to condole the very tragic deaths of 11 people and the 50 people, about 50 people who are injured.
06:34I think no words to express grief that we feel today.
06:38I was around that location, so I know what kind of crowds there were.
06:44I think, you know, we have seen this repeatedly, not just of this one.
06:51We have seen religious events.
06:56We have seen public entertainment events.
06:59We have seen crowd management has never been a strength of this country.
07:04We have repeatedly failed.
07:06We don't learn from experiences.
07:08The recent experiences we have had three to six months before where tragic deaths had happened.
07:17We need to have, you know, today we can use technology so effectively in a city like IT city, like Bangalore.
07:25Now, why can we not use crowd management, good crowd management solutions where you can anticipate?
07:33No person, this is not just an issue of physical barricade.
07:38This is not just an issue of having X number of police people deployed.
07:44Maybe 5,000 policemen were deployed.
07:46This is not just that.
07:48It is about understanding when crowds are surging.
07:53Right.
07:53About a kilometer away, you have to create a kind of a fence, you know, an artificial fence where you don't allow people beyond that limit.
08:02So that closer to that location, so many things can be done.
08:07You can completely block off all vehicles.
08:08The problem, if I may say so, ma'am, is human life comes cheap in this country.
08:13And the truth of the matter is, as Syed Kirmani has rightly pointed out, Bengaluru wins this match at midnight.
08:20Within 12 hours, you want to have these grand celebrations.
08:24This could have waited.
08:25This could have waited, been properly done with respect to the players, the franchise, which has done so, the city so proud.
08:32What was the urgency to try and create this show, what I would, some would call a bit of a tamasha in the end.
08:38Kuldeep Dantewadia, your co-founder and CEO, Reap Benefit.
08:42I mean, does Bengaluru feel today let down in a way?
08:47Do you feel as a Bengalurian, as an Indian let down by the images you've seen?
08:51Firstly, condolences to the families who have lost these people.
08:58It was supposed to be a joyous occasion.
09:00It was supposed to be a celebratory occasion.
09:02It was supposed to be an occasion which was getting Bangalore together.
09:06So keeping that in mind, it's disappointing, tragic, but also frustrating.
09:11This was completely preventable.
09:13And when you see fans who love the sport, who love the team, who have showed up there and have lost their lives, this is absolutely, you know, tragic and disappointing and absolutely preventable.
09:25And that is the saddest part about this.
09:28And this is no secret.
09:31It was obvious that large number of citizens are going to turn up.
09:35Large number of citizens are going to support the team.
09:39There are already existing protocols which are there, the NDMA protocols which are there.
09:44All it needed was preparation.
09:46We have the plans on paper.
09:47It needed preparation.
09:48So as a Bengalurian, I feel not only let down, but I feel sad that an occasion which was supposed to bring the city together is now leaving a bitter taste in everyone's mouth.
10:00And the celebration has gone so wrong.
10:02And we might have the plans on paper, but there is absolute zero preparation on the ground.
10:07You know, but we saw Sanjay Sahai when the Indian team last year won the World T20 Tournament.
10:14Large crowds in Mumbai, but well-managed, by and large.
10:19Yes, there was fan frenzy.
10:20There always is, but they were well-managed.
10:22Is there something there for the Karnataka state government will have to answer for?
10:27Because were they simply not able to understand?
10:31You've done intelligence.
10:33Surely intelligence would have told them that the lakhs of people were gathering.
10:36And by then, they should have put a different protocol in place.
10:40You can't tell me, as Siddharamaya is saying, there are 30,000 people in Chinaswami, so only 30,000 will come.
10:47See, leave aside the intelligence part of it.
10:49Any gathering, you will calculate at a level which the experts tell you.
10:53And experts and the police officers, there are enough of inspectors and DSPs and ACPs who will tell you that nearly the exact numbers will come.
11:01But who has the time and energy to take those inputs?
11:05What has happened and what has become the order of the day that every planning is being done from the top level and once the decision is made, everybody needs to comply.
11:14And if something goes awry from the top below, these people escape in a variety of ways.
11:19No, but could it have been all, you know, given the fact, as I said, that the celebrations were decided upon at midnight when RCB won, did the police also need more time or did they have sufficient time to organize in your view?
11:29See, there are two things, sir.
11:30Rajdeep, there are two things.
11:31One is if you go by the normal course of events, you need more time.
11:35But if you are ready in a mood to do something 12 hours down the line, 16 hours down the line, there are different methods by which happen.
11:42So you put RAP in place, you put get forces from outside, you decide, you talk to people, you do the communication.
11:49It is not that the geography is unknown to us.
11:51It is not that the population is unknown to us.
11:53It is not that we will not be able to get the input.
11:56But that is a tough job and that has to be done with huge amount of planning, some amount of risk, execution and very precise monitoring operations and things of that nature.
12:06Okay, before I come to you, Syed Kirmani, I just want to play what Rajeev Shukla, who is likely to be the next BCCI president, he is also a Congress MP.
12:15He was asked these questions also.
12:17Is the BCCI just going to wash its hands off saying the IPL ended yesterday?
12:21After that, we have nothing to do with what happens on the streets or at a Chinnaswamy stadium of the KSEA.
12:27Listen in to what Rajeev Shukla, the Congress MP, had to say.
12:33I think it should not be politicized because this is a cricket function.
12:38We should not bring politics into cricket.
12:41And it can happen in any state.
12:43That means the party in power there should not be blamed for this.
12:48You know, first we should ascertain the facts.
12:50After that, we should decide what should happen and who is responsible.
12:56So, I think it should not be politicized at all.
13:01It can happen in any state, ruled by any political party.
13:04That much, if at times it happens in some state where BJP is in power, we should not blame BJP also.
13:10Because of the resignation, it should be politicized.
13:13This is politics.
13:14That is the truth.
13:15Zayed Kirmani, do you believe somewhere that cricket has also, that the cricket administration also needs to introspect,
13:24that the KSCA, you're a part of it,
13:26that this was taking place at the Chinnaswami Stadium.
13:29They too will have to be held accountable
13:31just as much as the Siddharamaya government
13:33will have to be held accountable tonight.
13:36Well, I suppose all the administration in Karnataka
13:40should get together and solve this problem.
13:43I have no right to comment about this, Rajdeep.
13:47I'm a cricketer, all right.
13:49I'm not attached to KSCA at the moment.
13:52I'm not a member of the KSCA.
13:53What's the difference, if I may then ask,
13:55between the fans of your generation and today's fans?
13:58Well, the fans of our time were not as crazy
14:05as the fans of today, particularly the IPM.
14:09The crazy fans are unbelievable, unimaginable,
14:15particularly as you could see that lacks and lacks of people
14:20were around Chinnaswami Stadium just to greet
14:23and glimpse, get a glimpse of these great heroes of IPM.
14:26Right.
14:27Revati Ashok, what would you tell,
14:29if you had one line to tell Mr. Siddharamaya and Shiv Kumar today,
14:33people who are happily posing with the cricketers,
14:36but now are refusing to take any responsibility for what happened,
14:40what would you want to tell them as a citizen of Bengaluru?
14:43I think better planning to take more care.
14:48I think ensuring that we had many things.
14:52No vehicles were blocked off.
14:56You should have vehicles blocked off.
14:58Many people are walking, have a fencing done at least one kilometer away.
15:03You can keep people away so that, you know,
15:07as the crowd surges, you can keep them at bay there.
15:12And if the crowd is not,
15:14because it's very difficult to exactly determine the crowd,
15:17but that is where technology comes in.
15:19I think whether there was sufficient use of technology
15:22and use in a manner in which you effectively take decisions,
15:27I'm not very sure.
15:28because it didn't look from the images,
15:31doesn't look like there was much use of technology in this case.
15:35I just want to ask you, therefore, Kuldeep Dhandewadia,
15:38do you want politicians to step down every time this happens?
15:41And I'm going to be joined by a couple of politicians in a moment.
15:43Each one wants the other to step down.
15:45Do you believe that's the answer?
15:46Is that how accountability should be fixed?
15:49No, I think what they can do in,
15:52I mean, to say, if they really mean what they say
15:56is take accountability, fix accountability
15:58and be better prepared.
16:00They'll fix it on some low-level police constabulary.
16:04And that's the unfortunate part.
16:06If they can take accountability,
16:08I think we'll be moving forward
16:09or else we'll just be doing this musical chairs every single time.
16:13Okay.
16:14Interesting comments coming in from my guests.
16:16This is why Bengaluru is a city
16:18where citizens are very active, conscious, angry today
16:21because that is the general mood.
16:24There is anger over a tragedy that could have been prevented.
16:28I re-emphasize a tragedy that could have been prevented.
16:31Appreciate my guests joining me on the show at this moment.
16:35Stay well, all of you, particularly Mr. Sayyid Kirmani.
16:37Always good to see you, sir.
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