The stampede that occurred in Bengaluru during the celebrations of RCB’s IPL victory was very tragic both from the point of view of the losses suffered by the victims and also the scar it left on a sweet moment. In 24 hours the fortunes of RCB came down from the top of the world to the depths of the ocean.
It is now time to reflect what went wrong and how did the Police officers and RCB officials were made immediate scapegoats with further risk hanging against KSCA officials.
It must be remembered that the as per the reports, Police had denied the permission for the event. Whoever went ahead with the event had over ruled the official police denial of permission with their oral instructions. I heard some where that there was an oral permission to continue with the event. But this cannot be accepted since it was a “Deemed Permission” by the CM/DyCM/Home Minister who all participated in the event and the DyCM even went around the city with the RCB flag and lifted the trophy as if he was the manager of the team.
While everybody knows that when the political leaders want to conduct the event, neither the Police was in a position to put their foot down nor RCB/KSCA was in a position to refuse. It would have been considered as insubordination and consequences would have followed.
We the Corporate managers are in such situation many times and we need to draw lessons that we can apply in our work environment.
Lessons for the Police
Police force consists of educated IPS officers but often they are spineless followers of the instructions of the political bosses.
We know how a BJP leader was treated by the Police recently in Belagavi. We know how police withdraw cases against terrorists because the political establishment wants it. This tendency of so called professional IPS officers to toe the line of the political bosses without any respect for their profession is well known.
Public therefore will consider that even in this case, the police officers who were suspended for no fault of theirs deserve the punishment.
Police could have requested the CM office to send a fax/email confirmation granting permission before proceeding with further arrangements. Until such time, the team should have been confined at the HAL airport and if necessary should have been sent back to Ahmedabad. But they did not have the guts to stand on their earlier decision and capitulated to the political will. This is the lesson for the professionals not to trust the political bosses and always insist on written instructions in such cases.
Lessons for the RCB/KSCA
If we consider RCB/KSCA as corporate entities, the denial of police permission was critical and they should have refused permission for the use of the stadium. At best they could have attended the Vidhana Soudha event as guests and went home. KSCA is not obliged to RCB to provide its ground and should have refused to allow the event without payment and without police permission in writing with one of the office bearers of KSCA.
RCB is a marketing driven organization and marketing personnel often have no respect for law and compliance.
The RCB legal compliance team should have intervened and said that the risk of holding the event without police permission is possible arrest of its executives and prosecution. I can imagine that no body in RCB would even consult or listen to the legal counsel and hence they had no hand in approving the conduct of event over ruling the non compliance of the legal requirements.
Both Police as well as RCB/KSCA should realize that their trust in politicians was misplaced and they are paying the price for the same. The Courts have come in now and would consider the concept of “Deemed Permission” when the Home Minister/DyCM/CM are themselves participants of an event for which written permission was not available.
If the High Court takes the right decision, this should at least embolden the future police officers to remain more professional than they otherwise are.
As regard the public, we are all aware that RCB has Bengaluru only in name. In its character or composition, there is no “Bengaluru” or “Karnataka” . They have never encouraged local talent and have specifically avoided bidding for eligible local players in the auction. Our stars like K L Rahul, Karun Nair, Prasidh Krishna are in other teams. There was therefore no reason to celebrate its victory in Bengaluru with such fervour.
However, our deep condolences to the family members of the victims who are the real losers in this episode, having lost their loved children. May God give them the strength to bear the loss.
Naavi