Editorial: Endemic failure in crowd management

The Bengaluru tragedy has once again exposed glaring gaps in India’s crowd management and safety systems

Be it religious gatherings, political rallies or social celebrations, overcrowding is so commonplace in India, the world’s most populous nation, that one would think only a miracle saves them from a potential tragedy. But every stampede is a stark reminder that it is not miracles but proper planning and crowd management protocols that will save us. The tragic deaths of 11 people in a stampede at a gathering in Bengaluru to celebrate the IPL victory of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are the direct result of systemic apathy, political expediency and an endemic failure to plan for public safety. The capacity of Chinnaswamy Stadium is just around 35,000, but over 3 lakh people were allowed to swarm into the area, many of them desperate to catch a glimpse of their cricketing heroes. This led to complete chaos and panic. An occasion that was meant to be a celebration turned into a tragedy. A triumph became a requiem. Clear criminal negligence resulted in an avoidable tragedy. The political blame game that followed was all the more disgusting. The Bengaluru tragedy has once again exposed glaring gaps in India’s crowd management and safety systems. The problem is that crowd management is rarely a top priority for governments and the crisis management begins only after the crowd becomes a headline. The response is mostly reactive rather than proactive. Stampedes can be averted or minimised if the basics are followed religiously. The Centre and States would do well to scrupulously follow the guidelines on crowd management issued by the National Disaster Management Authority in 2014.

Adequate deployment of security personnel to regulate crowd movement and meticulous planning of the arrangements are prerequisites to prevent untoward incidents. Time and again, India’s administrators have failed to learn from past tragedies — from religious stampedes to election rallies. A familiar pattern has emerged now: a tragic incident, a magisterial inquiry, ex gratia announcements, political blame game and then silence. Public memory fades until the next avoidable calamity. Bengaluru’s stampede is a reminder that in India, even celebrations can turn fatal — not because of people’s passion, but because of the goof-ups by the authorities and the political leadership. The Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) reportedly informed state authorities about the celebration only on the morning of the event, showing a careless underestimation of what IPL means to Indian fans — especially in a city like Bengaluru. But the failure didn’t stop there. The original plan of an open-top bus parade from Vidhana Soudha to the stadium was cancelled due to traffic concerns but the sudden shift of venue to a stadium without adequate crowd management or public communication — was a recipe for disaster. There were reports of last-minute political pressure to hold a public event. This demonstrates how public safety is often thrown to the wind to serve political optics.

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