RCB's IPL celebration-turned-tragedy: Who is to blame?

Why were RCB officials so blase about letting the event take place? It's important to hold the people responsible accountable for the tragedy.

Death is used liberally in cricket as a metaphor. Bowling at the death. Reviving an innings. Coming back from the dead. Nobody ever expects it to stop being a metaphor, though. When that happens, the cricketing world stands numb with shock, grief and even fury. But the people who died in the stampede-like situation at the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s celebration event won’t be around to register the deluge of outrage and sympathy their deaths have caused.

Packed crowds in India celebrating their cricket team's victory ended in a deadly stampede on Wednesday with 11, mainly young, fans crushed to death.(AFP)

It was perhaps the strangest two days in the life of any cricket team or its fans. On June 3, there was a peak of euphoria like no other. On June 4, there was a depth of despair that couldn’t have been fathomed.

There are 11 fans whose families will never hear them smile, laugh, reminisce again. They had gone to the event thinking it was an extension of the happiest day of their lives. Everyone who was there at the event would have gone to celebrate.

Everyone. And therein lies the issue. When it’s to do with a franchise like RCB, ‘everyone’ is a massive number.

Why the hurry to celebrate?

There are questions that must arise from the tragedy.

Who decided that a celebration involving the teeming public of a metropolis, less than 24 hours after a momentous win, was a good idea?

Didn’t anyone understand the emotional magnitude of the victory? RCB had won the IPL after 18 years, having come close several times, having had the players to go all the way often, but never winning? They had become the favourite punchline of IPL trophy jokes. And then to actually win it, was like deliverance. If it was so for players, it would have been doubly so for fans. The players get to pack up after a disappointing season and move on to the next tournament. They have to compartmentalise to succeed, because it is their profession. The fan has carried the hurt for 18 years. Did no one expect an absolute outpouring of fandom on the streets then?

Perhaps most important of all, even if the franchise wanted to celebrate in that giddy rush of a first-time victory, why were the officials responsible for logistics and security so blase about letting the event take place? Why were they not forcefully saying it was not possible at such short notice? A ‘no’ from the authorities would have meant a postponing of the celebration.

It would have allowed the initial adrenaline rush to at least dissipate. There would have still been massive throngs of people - but better security and planning would have been in place.

The answers to these questions will be lost amidst the blame-game that inevitably emerges whenever there’s a national tragedy. There have already been arrests, or calls to arrest, officials from the franchise, the event management company and those from the Karnataka State Cricket Association.

These bodies were part of organising the celebration, sure. But could they have done it without official sanction?

The lynch mob

The other fallout of any national tragedy is that there is never one tragedy: there are two. First, is the tragic event itself. And that is followed by a howling lynch mob online who want their bloodlust satisfied by ritual sacrifice.

So you have social media abuzz with trends that call for the arrest of Virat Kohli. You have editorials that demand victims’ families be compensated X amount or Y amount. You have people call for the banning of RCB. I’d be willing to bet that none of those making these sorts of outrageous demands feel as much sadness for the victims as they feel joy in tearing down people for their own agendas. Because how is a Virat Kohli responsible for any of the tragic events, in any manner whatsoever? How does banning the franchise address why the stampede happened and how to ensure it never gets repeated? How does an internet warrior sitting at home determine not just what sum of money should be paid, but who should be paying it?

The stampede, the loss of lives, and the injuries and trauma was a tragedy. It’s important to hold people accountable for it. It’s equally important to not point the finger at those who weren’t central to the decisions that led to the tragedy.