- BJP criticised Karnataka government for blaming RCB for stampede deaths during victory parade
- Government report said RCB's social media posts invited public without police consultation
- Report cited crowd confusion over entry passes as cause of stampede at Chinnaswamy Stadium
The BJP has slammed the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government over its report blaming Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) for the stampedes during the June 4 victory parade that left 11 people dead and nearly 50 injured.
Aravind Bellad, BJP MLA and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, said the government wanted to take credit after the RCB's IPL victory after 18 years, but has now started blaming the franchisee and cricket star Virat Kohli for the stampede deaths.
The state government's report, made public after a high court order, says that RCB put out social media posts inviting the public to join the victory parade from Vidhana Soudha to Chinnaswamy Stadium "without consulting the police". The report says RCB also shared a video clip of Virat Kohli, its star player, in which he said the team wants to celebrate the victory with the people of Bengaluru.
These posts, the report said, contributed to drawing a massive crowd to the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Confusion over entry passes fuelled the chaos, eventually leading to the stampede tragedy, the report says.
The BJP has now slammed the state government and accused it of trying to evade responsibility. "It's not only RCB that invited people, a huge number of people came on the invitation of the Congress, (Deputy Chief Minister) DK Shivakumar and government officials, the DPAR secretary came on TV and invited people, the government is solely responsible for this," Mr Bellad said.
"If the report says RCB is solely responsible, why did the government suspend police officers? The Chief Minister should apologise to the former police commissioner. If there was an intimation by RCB that they will hold the event, then the government should have refused permission. They they had all the right to say this event cannot be held. Just to take credit for the victory, the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister invited people. To now put the blame on a great player like Virat Kohli or RCB is wrong," the BJP leader added.
The state government had urged the high court to keep the report confidential, but the court stated there were no legal grounds for such confidentiality.
The report explains the chaos that led to the stampedes at some gates of the Chinnaswamy Stadium after over 3 lakh people gathered and tried to enter the stadium, which has a capacity of about 35,000.
The report also explains why the state government did not call off the victory parade after the stampede. It says abruptly shutting down the victory celebrations at the stadium "could potentially incite violence among the gathered crowd and adversely affect overall law and order across the city".
"...a measured response was taken by curtailing the duration of the function. Instead of complete termination, a measured approach was adopted by allowing the event to proceed with significantly curtailed duration and enhanced monitoring," it says.
