The main entry gate of M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the tragic stampede incident took place last week, in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
Credit: DH PHOTO/PUSHKAR V
New Delhi: The Congress high command, on Tuesday, is said to have pulled up Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar over the tragic stampede that claimed 11 lives during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL victory celebrations outside the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru.
The party top leaders discussed the government’s handling of the incident that occurred on June 4, sources said.
Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge, senior leader Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, who is also the state party president, and other leaders were present at the meeting.
‘Ensure no recurrence’
The top leaders said that the issue could have been handled in a better way by the state government and asked them not to allow a recurrence of such incidents, sources said. The party top brass said the government should have been more sensitive.
Rahul Gandhi told the two leaders that human lives were of great value to the Congress party and the government had to be responsive towards people, “unlike the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh or the Left government in Kerala where no responsibility was taken for the loss of lives during the Kumbh mela and the Sabarimala tragedy respectively,” sources said.
Emerging out of the meeting, Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal told reporters that the chief minister and Shivakumar briefed the leadership about the incident and the action taken by the government.
“Certainly, we are very much concerned about every human life. An unfortunate incident has happened. The Karnataka government has already ordered a judicial inquiry to find out what exactly happened,” he said.
While the party chose not to delve into the specifics since the judicial inquiry was going on, Venugopal emphasised that the Congress had a “clear view that there should be a clear-cut pro-people attitude on this issue”.
Separately, Siddaramaiah said the party top brass was convinced about the steps taken by his government in the aftermath of the incident.