Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar broke down in tears on Thursday while addressing the media for the first time following the devastating stampede outside Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium that claimed 11 lives and injured dozens, ANI reported.
Reacting to allegations by the opposition that police had not given permission for celebrations, he said, "I don't want to react to any of these BJP guys. I am only answerable to the people of Karnataka and people of the country. All BJP persons are nonsense. They are also the mastermind of these dirty things."
He also accused that the opposition BJP and JD(S) are playing politics on dead bodies and said that the state government has taken full responsibility for the incident, according to news agency PTI.
Shivakumar slamming the oppositon, particularly BJP, also said, “Let the opposition do politics on dead bodies. I will list how many dead bodies they have done politics on,” he said.
He said that the BJP had previously demanded a procession and questioned what might have happened had that gone ahead. “This has happened without the procession. If the procession had happened, what would have been the situation?”
Speaking to reporters he said, "We are deeply hurt. The victims are our own family. The image of Karnataka, the image of Bengaluru is lost. Yes we take responsibility. We are not blaming others though it has happened very unexpectedly. No one expected such a crowd. After 18 years (of wait for RCB's victory), I don't know what was boiling in the youngsters and they all came. That is debatable. Things have happened".
"Now let us be part of the grief. We want to respect the deceased. My CM is also shocked, my home minister is also shocked and the entire state is shocked. The state is mourning over this," he said.
Responding to a request made by a woman to not conduct post-mortem of her son's body, he said, "The mother of a child who died in the stampede said please don't do the post-mortem, give the body to me. How can we do it? We have to take up a legal course. Because tomorrow something may happen and (questiones would be raised) if it was done it in a proper way? Whether it was an accident, whether someone has stamped him or stabbed him that report has to come from the health authorities. Only if a post-mortem is done, we will know it," he added.
Recounting his visit to the stadium after the incident, he said, "I just checked the gates. How many gates were there, lot of issues were there. I think the magistrates will definitely look into it. We are very serious in this."
He said that his party at the national is very much concerned about this issue, too. We will try to find a solution for this," he said.
The tragedy unfolded during a public celebration to honor Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) after their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) title win.
Visibly shaken, Shivakumar struggled to contain his emotions, especially while speaking about the young victims. “I am worried about the children. Those small children, I saw they were 15 years old. I’ve seen with my own eyes at least 10 people who passed away. No family can digest this loss,” he said during the press conference.
“It hurts to see the little children. I have seen their pain.”
The stampede occurred as an unexpectedly massive crowd, estimated at over 3 lakh people gathered around the stadium despite its official capacity being just 35,000.
Free passes distributed online and limited access points created chaos as fans surged to glimpse their favorite players. The Karnataka government has announced Rs 10 lakh compensation for the families of the deceased and promised free medical care for the injured.
Shivakumar, who had earlier welcomed the RCB team at HAL Airport and participated in events at Vidhana Soudha, initially claimed he had no confirmation of the incident.
He later acknowledged the gravity of the situation and offered a public apology. “We never expected such a big crowd... We apologise for this incident. We want to know the facts and give a clear message,” he told ANI.
Facing mounting criticism over mismanagement and negligence, Shivakumar said that the event at the stadium was hurriedly concluded on police instructions.
“The Police Commissioner told me to wrap the event in 10 minutes. I rushed the event. We didn’t let them make any announcements. We finished everything quickly and KSCA also agreed.”
(With inputs from ANI, PTI)
