Bengaluru’s day of shame as city failed its fans

A perfect storm of giddy, overenthusiastic fans, poor planning by officials, bad stadium management, stretched police force, shortage of time, clueless event management and lack of communication between stakeholders resulted in the tragic — and totally avoidable — deaths of 11 RCB fans and left nearly 100 injured.At the crack of dawn, RCB lit up social media with the big news: The champions were flying home with the coveted IPL trophy and would celebrate with a grand victory parade in Bengaluru. It was an announcement that caught the cops unawares as they had no communication about it. But it sent the already-electrified fanbase into overdrive.Then came the colossal collective failure: Police honchos failed to act swiftly and draw up crowd-control plans.

Politicians turned the celebration into a photo-op frenzy, brushing aside warnings in their race to bask in reflected glory. Many brought their families to Vidhana Soudha to pose with the cricketers.“RCB gave the city a reason to celebrate. But police and politicians turned that joy into grief with their sheer incompetence. It’s shameful that Bengaluru couldn’t manage a 1km victory parade,” said the grieving brother of one of the victims.

Even senior bureaucrats admitted that the lives could have been saved with proper planning and coordination. “The RCB management did not consult us before announcing a victory parade, we would not have allowed it given the crazy celebrations that unfolded on the streets on Tuesday night after the victory. But the political bosses were in no mood to listen, they wanted us to go ahead with bandobust,” a senior police officer said.Those who fell were trampledTill mid-afternoon, there was no clarity whether there was a parade and where the events would be held. Senior cops were informed only around 2pm to be at the stadium and assembly. By which time, the crowds had already gathered.At the cricket stadium, the scenes from early afternoon held bad portents. Fans had started flocking the gates by noon and it was apparent to any bystander that things would get of control soon. TOI reporters, who could not even get in, found that most gates stayed shut and false rumours of gate numbers led to huge rush. Naturally barricades collapsed, metal grills broke down and those who fell — mostly young people and women – found themselves unable to get up and got crushed and trampled.