BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, while making a statement in the Assembly on Friday regarding the June 4 stampede that claimed 11 lives during the IPL victory celebrations, said that such tragedies have occurred both in India and across the world, and that no one in the country has ever taken responsibility or tendered resignations in such cases.
Protesting the statement, BJP and JD(S) MLAs led by Leader of Opposition R. Ashoka staged a walkout.
Earlier, speaking about the incident, CM Siddaramaiah said, “The BJP has demanded that if I have a heart and humanity, I should apologise for the tragedy. I had already expressed my regrets on the day of the incident. In my 42 years as a legislator since 1983, no such incident has taken place. I have never seen 11 deaths in a stampede tragedy. We are grieving. I am still disturbed by the incident.”
“I came to know about the deaths only at 5.30 p.m. Until then, I was not aware. It is true that I went to a hotel to have dosa. My grandson had come from London, and I had taken him to the RCB players’ felicitation at the grand steps of Vidhana Soudha. My legal advisor, A.S. Ponnanna, informed me at 5.30 p.m. It is up to you whether to believe it or not. When I called the then Bengaluru Police Commissioner B. Dayananda, he said one person had died, but by then, 11 people had lost their lives. All of them were between 13 and 29 years old, ” the CM said.
“Later, we went to the hospitals, and after seeing the bodies, I was deeply saddened. A magisterial inquiry was ordered immediately, followed by the appointment of a judicial commission to investigate and submit a report within a time frame, ” he added.
The CM pointed out that in the last 10 years, 20 stampede incidents have been reported in India. “In the 2008 Nainadevi temple stampede in Himachal Pradesh, 162 were killed. In Rajasthan, 250 died in a stampede at Chamundadevi temple. In 2013, 45 were killed at Ratnaganj temple in Madhya Pradesh, 33 in Baheshwar, and 121 in Hatras, Uttar Pradesh. Recently, in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, 39 people were killed in a stampede. In all these cases, BJP governments ruled the states, but no one took responsibility or resigned, ” he said.
“These incidents are not confined to India. In 1989, the Sheffield stadium stampede in England killed 97 people. In 2013, three people were killed in America, and in 2022, 174 people died in Indonesia. Stampede incidents have been happening across the world for many years, ” he added.
Targeting the BJP, Siddaramaiah said, “At the peak of the Covid pandemic, when the Gujarat IPL team won the trophy in 2022, Union Home Minister Amit Shah attended the event with his wife. The Gujarat CM also participated. A procession was allowed in Ahmedabad. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held the ‘Howdy Modi’ event in 2020. Did any BJP CM order an inquiry or tender an apology?”
He further said, “During the Covid pandemic, 36 people died due to a lack of oxygen in Chamarajanagar in Karnataka. Was there any resignation then? Did anyone resign after the Air India flight tragedy that killed 267 people?”
BJP MLAs strongly objected to these references, claiming the CM was quoting out of context.