Can a district collector file a report against the very government that appointed him? Can an officer of the state investigate his political masters and bring them to justice? The answer is obvious to anyone who understands the basics of governance. Yet, in an insult to public intelligence, the Karnataka government has asked the Bengaluru Urban District Collector, who is also the District Magistrate, to probe the horrifying stampede that killed 11 people and injured over 47 during the RCB felicitation event.
This isn’t just administrative apathy. It is a criminal farce.
Undoubtedly, the event was government-sponsored, government-organised, and government-promoted. And when the inevitable happened—when poor planning, political overreach, and mindless crowd gathering led to chaos and death—the same government chose to point fingers at others, hoping the public would forget and forgive.
The felicitation of Royal Challengers Bangalore was not some private gathering. The Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, D.K. Shivakumar, went personally to the airport to receive the team. What does that indicate? A state function, state involvement, and state endorsement. If it were a private Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) affair, why were the Chief Minister, Deputy CM, and several ministers sharing the dais at Chinnaswamy Stadium? Why was the team taken to the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of Karnataka’s legislature?
Who gave it the pomp and publicity? The KSCA or the Congress government?
It is disingenuous for the government now to distance itself from the tragedy. This was a photo-op gone tragically wrong. The event was hijacked by the Congress leadership to score political points, riding on the wave of RCB’s long-awaited IPL win. Instead, what we witnessed was a classic case of unbridled political greed resulting in a catastrophe.
In the aftermath, the government scrambled for cover. The KSCA secretary, Shankar, was chased by reporters but refused to comment. Can anyone blame him? It was clear the government had suddenly shifted the blame onto KSCA—a convenient fall guy to deflect heat from its top leadership.
But let’s ask the real question: even if it were a KSCA event, could it have gone ahead without police permission? Without crowd control measures? Without political patronage? Of course not. The state police were very much involved—and so was the state machinery. To now claim ignorance or feign shock is an insult to the victims and their grieving families.
Former CM H.D. Kumaraswamy was blunt in demanding D.K. Shivakumar’s resignation. And rightly so. The Deputy CM wanted credit for the event. He wanted to bask in reflected glory. He wanted headlines. And when it all went wrong, he wept in front of TV cameras, performing his trademark political drama.
He praised the police force after the event—yes, the same police force that failed to control the crowd or prevent deaths. His tears cannot wash away the blood spilled because of his overzealous ambition and the government’s criminal negligence.
The RCB franchise is not guiltless. By agreeing to be part of such a hastily organized and poorly managed spectacle, they too share blame. Perhaps their decision to announce ₹10 lakh as ex gratia was an attempt at moral face-saving. But no amount of money can justify this chaos. It was reckless, arrogant, and deeply insensitive to the realities of crowd behaviour and public safety.
And let’s be clear: the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Indian Premier League (IPL) cannot be dragged into this mess. Their role ended with the final whistle of the tournament. They had no hand in what happened after. This fiasco belongs entirely to the Karnataka government, the RCB franchise, and the KSCA.
If the CM and Deputy CM claim they were unaware of the stampede, how were they still garlanding players and kissing trophies even as the tragedy unfolded outside the stadium? Their PR machinery went into full swing while bodies were being carried away.
The visuals of Virat Kohli, Anushka Sharma, and other players waving to fans, oblivious to the disaster, were painful to watch. Not because the players are at fault, but because the organisers didn’t even pause the event when lives had been lost.
Thankfully, the Karnataka High Court has taken suo motu cognizance of the incident. Public pressure must now ensure that a judicial probe—independent of the government—is instituted. A report by the District Collector will be nothing but a whitewash. The people deserve the truth, not a government cover-up.
Let’s also not overlook the political subtext. Siddaramaiah may well be smirking behind the scenes, seeing his ambitious rival Shivakumar land himself in a quagmire. What was meant to be a show of political strength for Shivakumar to impress the Gandhi family has turned into a PR disaster. In his rush to steal credit, he lost control, and people paid with their lives.
Eleven people died not because of an act of God, but because of human greed, government overreach, and institutional arrogance. This wasn’t a tragedy—it was a massacre of accountability. The Congress-led Karnataka government cannot escape the noose of moral and administrative failure.
This time, no amount of crocodile tears, blame games, or bureaucratic probes will suffice. Heads must roll. Responsibility must be fixed. And justice must not be delayed—because delayed justice, in India, is too often denied justice.
