Bengaluru: The June 5 tragedy, in which the lives of 11 youngsters were snuffed at the gates of M Chinnaswamy Stadium, has severely dented the image of the Congress govt, which had, in fact, been running high on women and young voters in the state. The fact that the 11 victims were primarily youths, including teens, has placed the govt in an ‘indefensible’ position.“At the cabinet meeting, it was decided that the govt won’t defend the administrative lapses in controlling the crowd or executing a hurriedly put-together victory event for RCB. The demographic of the victims alone pushes us into a corner, and we can’t come out swinging. With damning visuals of our govt and our families taking selfies with Virat Kohli, there’s nothing we can defend. Apologise, roll heads, and move on,” said one cabinet minister.In fact, it is claimed the entire series of events, strung together, can even suggest a “conspiracy theory,” further creating headaches for the govt. “The IAS-IPS tussle, the CMO top bureaucrat resigning, the political secretary’s dismissal, dismissal of the top cop, all of them happening overnight seriously damages our credibility,” said another govt personnel, admitting the issue may not die down anytime soon.Meanwhile, the BJP has used the administrative lapse to target chief minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar as being culpable for the deaths. “The CM and DCM completely failed the state, and it is a continuation of the rising law-and-order crisis in the state. It is a major mishap which happened under their watch, and the govt needs to be held accountable,” said former DCM and BJP MLA CN Ashwath Narayan.However, IT-BT and RDPR minister Priyank Kharge said only the fact that this was an “avoidable” tragedy makes it a law-and-order example. “We can’t relate a crime misdemeanour with a stampede of this scale. This is unprecedented. It’s like a Cricket Kumbh Mela. The social media frenzy, KSCA and RCB random message… It isn’t a law and order situation as such. I think all the institutions, whether it is the govt, KSCA, RCB or RCB fans, could have been more responsible and done something better on that fateful day,” he said.