The concentric circles of guilt in a sports-loving city

The Hindu

2 days ago

For no fault of the players, RCB's first IPL title will always be associated with death and disaster. Rajat Patidar and his boys deserved better, as did the lakhs of fans who turned up that Wednesday morning to share in the triumph. Sport is a life-affirming activity, and to die in its support goes against the natural order of things. Eleven fans died, and no amount of buck-passing will make a difference to their families and loved ones.
I have lived in Bengaluru for more years than anywhere else, starting from primary school. But you don't have to be a local to feel the terrible weight of the human disaster. Especially one which with some foresight and common sense could have been avoided. A marketing opportunity for one group, a photo-op for another saw the death of innocence in a sports-loving city.
Accountability usually works in a series of concentric circles. Steadily, depending on the public reaction, it moves from the outermost circle which is the least to blame and moves towards the centre. There are, of course varying degrees of guilt, starting from the outermost circle, which was quickly brought into the picture by the Deputy Chief Minister (DCM) when he said the crowds were 'uncontrollable.' This is the politician's first line of defence — the people did it.
But this is not an issue likely to disappear, especially since the politicians appeared to be more keen on posing with the players than on dealing with the situation. Does the DCM deserve the benefit of the doubt when he claimed that inside the stadium he did not know about the stampede outside? No official told him? The politicians belong to the innermost circle — is the momentum of the accountability strong enough to get to them?
Lack of communication
Letters emerging from top police officials warning of the dangers of the lack of preparation for controlling huge crowds suggest that ultimately decisions were taken to which they were not privy. The lack of clear communication between the organisers (there is still some confusion about who these were, the government, the Karnataka State Cricket Association or RCB, or all three at different times and venues) and the public was, in the end, fatal. Crowds respond to rumours; they contain professional trouble-makers, some fuelled by drink. Many seek a shared kinship amidst unemployment and marginalisation.
There is too the culture of the IPL itself, which encourages over-the-top reactions. Irrational, overplayed and illogical, it is one of sport's techniques to put 'bums on seats', as the boxer Muhammad Ali memorably put it. Or bums on couches before the television. Rivalry, individual as well as among teams, is encouraged. Remember the famous slap in the early years, when Harbhajan Singh, an India player, slapped Sreesanth, another India player? There is no such thing as bad publicity, those officials believed, but now they have overplayed their hand.
'Celebration' and rotten behaviour
If cricket fans in India have become indistinguishable from football fans in Europe, the culture of the IPL has something to do with this. 'Celebration' — whether on New Year's Eve or at festivals — seems a free pass to rotten behaviour, physical abuse of women, and perhaps an outlet for many frustrations. Anonymity in a crowd is of the kind that social media guarantees, so is the entitlement. Perhaps the refusal to listen to authority or follow instructions comes from the same mindset. That, of course, ought not to stop authority, from the politicians to the police from doing their job of keeping everybody safe.
Would lakhs have turned up to greet the Karnataka team had they won the Ranji Trophy? It seems that most of India's fans are not so much cricket lovers as cricketer lovers. Social media has fed into the interminable hunger for news of personalities, building the players up in the process and putting them out of reach of the everyday.
But those questions will have to await another day. For the moment, it is important to sift the essential from the incidental. Senior policemen have been suspended, an RCB official faced arrest, two office-bearers of the Karnataka State Cricket Association have resigned. But who among the inner circle knowing the possible consequences gave the go-ahead? Check the photographs.