We have now seen two reports on the Bengaluru stampede. One that exonerates the police and one that implicates the RCB and the police and exonerates the government. The truth is there can’t be either or. The blame is collective and one has to accept it and then seek redemption. The 331 page report to the High Court submitted by the Government suggests that police permission wasn’t given and all that RCB did was intimate the police. What is implied here is that there was no official permission ever granted.
The question to ask is one part of the function was held in the Vidhan Soudha and from there the caravan moved to the Chinnaswamy. How is it that no one really knew what was going on? How was it that permission wasn’t granted and yet all things could happen? How can the political class absolve itself of the blame? How can blame squarely be put on the doorsteps of the RCB and only the RCB and DNA networks?
That’s where things become complicated. What we now have is a blame game. The Tribunal report, which came earlier this month asked for the reinstatement of the police official who was suspended. It absolved him of any blame and cleared him of any wrongdoing.
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Now the government report tabled at the High Court has presented a fundamentally different narrative. It has point by point exposed how RCB was totally in the wrong in the way it organised and went about the celebrations hand in hand with DNA Networks and KSCA. The report is scathing. Its findings more so. But what the report doesn’t say is how come all this went on or was allowed to go on without any official clampdown? If all things were unauthorised why not stop them? Why let things get out of control and then start the blame game? Why does have RCB have so much power that it can go ahead and stage something without due diligence from the administration and without administrative clearance?
While we continue to grapple with what really happened and who is to be held responsible, the truth is the 11 lives that were lost are all but forgotten. Who remembers the names? Who remembers the faces and who remembers the families?
The government will fight the case tooth and nail with high profile battery of lawyers. RCB, a billion dollar franchise, will respond with equally high profile legal eagles. The case will drag on for months and we will see it escalated. In all this the families will mourn in silence. They will be the 11 victims of the stampede who will come up in every case report and every judicial report published on the matter. A footnote that states 11 people died in the stampede.
That’s the real tragedy. Fans died and nothing, literally nothing, can or will be done. Some police officials transferred or some compensation paid is mere lip service. The damage is done forever. Every fan who henceforth decides to go out and be part of a celebration will be told by parents not to venture out. We don’t want more people dead and that’s the real story.
While we await to see what transpires in the future, the truth is the failure was collective. Each wanted a share of the glamour and the glory and each is responsible for the disaster. However many reports may come out, the truth will not change.
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