Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday for politicizing the recent stampede at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium, which resulted in the deaths of 11 people. His comments came after the BJP accused the Congress-led state government of making the police a “scapegoat” for the incident.
CM Siddaramaiah said the state government has already taken action against officials who were found to be “visibly responsible” and “negligent in their duty. He remarked, “They are doing it for politics. I don’t do politics. We have taken action against those who were visibly responsible and found to be negligent in their duty.”
Meanwhile, Karnataka BJP President BY Vijayendra accused the state government of only taking action when pressured. “The state government has acted only after coming under pressure…Action has been taken against RCB and the Karnataka Cricket Association. Yesterday, the Chief Minister suddenly suspended senior police officers, including the Bengaluru City Police Commissioner, and five other officials,” Vijayendra said.
Pointing fingers at senior state cabinet members, including CM Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, and Home Minister G. Parameshwara, demanding an investigation into their roles in the stampede. “The real accused is none other than Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Accused no. 2 is Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar. Accused no. 3 is Home Minister G. Parameshwara. They must truly be subjected to investigation,” the state BJP president said.
Following the tragic event at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 4, the Karnataka police suspended multiple IPS officers, including Bengaluru City Police Commissioner B. Dayananda. Senior IPS officer Seemant Kumar Singh has since taken over as the city police commissioner. In addition to Dayananda, Additional Commissioner of Police Vikash Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) Shekhar H.T., Assistant Commissioner of Police Balakrishna, and Cubbon Park Police Inspector Girish A.K. were also suspended with immediate effect.
