Taking responsibility: on the stampede in Bengaluru

For many cricket lovers in Bengaluru and Karnataka, the one lingering disappointment was the persisting failure of Royal Challengers Bengaluru to win the Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy. Virat Kohli may have been king across the world but in the IPL he was not, until a dramatic change of fortunes at the very end of his career. The cup win in 2025 was to be the crowning glory of Kohli, RCB, and, eventually, Bengaluru itself. But tragically enough, the stampede at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium during the victory celebrations on June 4 upended that glory. In its probe of the stampede that killed 11 and left 71 injured, the John Michael D’Cunha Commission has come down severely on the RCB management and the police. It has pinpointed the cause as “not regulating the entry into the gates and making reckless announcements with regard to the entry into the stadium”. It has named many and recommended legal action against them while discussing how such gatherings can be made safer and the medical backups that may be required. But its terms of inquiry were limited and missed the bigger picture. Blame must be apportioned to all stakeholders who just did not think of the consequences of calling for such a large gathering and going ahead with it without the permissions and arrangements. The police must be faulted for not beefing up the arrangements at the stadium’s entry and exit points. But it may not be fair to blame them for allowing the event — it had practically become a fait accompli as the administration was going along with the celebrations and the euphoria.

The stadium event was among the three planned that day. As if to kick off the celebrations, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah felicitated the team in an open-air event outside the Vidhana Soudha in the morning. These celebrations set the tone for what unfolded that day. To their credit, the police did refuse to allow the planned victory parade on an open bus. And at the Vidhana Soudha, where only a few among the lakhs who had gathered got to see their favourite stars, an announcement was made that people could proceed to the stadium which has a seating capacity of just 32,000. In a broader sense though, the stampede was a reflection of the realities of urban life too, where massive flash crowds can generate from communities sharing a common passion and kindled by social media. Urban planners and managers have little clue on how to handle such mobilisations, which have resulted in stampedes at religious, social and cultural events, leading to the loss of hundreds of lives.