Union minister Pralhad Joshi launched a scathing attack on the ruling Congress government in Karnataka, alleging that the political leadership and bureaucrats in the state “were busy taking selfies” when the incident took place. He further alleged that there had been a “big lapse” on the part of the Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government.

“…The Chief Minister, Deputy CM, ministers were all trying to take selfies with their family members, more police were engaged at the Vidhana Soudha,” Pralhad Joshi told reporters, adding that the state government was now pointing fingers at the Karnataka State Cricket Board.

A day after the Royal Challengers Bangalore lifted the Indian Premier League or IPL 2025 trophy, a massive crowd turned up on Wednesday near the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Karnataka’s capital to celebrate the victory. However, chaos broke out after authorities closed the gates of the stadium, resulting in a stampede which led to the deaths of 11 people and left over 30 others injured. 

While calling the incident “unfortunate”, Joshi demanded the conduct of a judicial inquiry on the matter. 

‘Police forced to grant permission due to political pressure’

Joshi also alleged that the Karnataka police had been forced to grant permission for the celebration of the victory due to political pressure.

“…Because of the political pressure from the government, they (police) were forced to accord the permission, which is very unfortunate…,” Joshi told ANI.

He said that there had been “complete negligence” on the part of the state government, holding them responsible for the incident. “More than anyone else, the government is responsible; both the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister must be held accountable,” Joshi said.

The union minister said that the police had flagged their concerns beforehand, adding that they were dismissed. “The police were reportedly not in favour of the celebrations and had raised concerns, including objections to the use of an open vehicle for the celebrations. But their concerns were dismissed,” PTI quoted him as saying.

Joshi further alleged that the authorities had insisted and “pushed forward” with the celebrations, adding that they were “hoping to politically capitalise on RCB‘s victory”. 

Earlier in a post on X, Joshi had blamed “poor planning” and “crowd mismanagement” as the reasons for the tragedy. “It’s heartbreaking to see such loss because of poor planning and crowd mismanagement. The state government in Karnataka has clearly failed in its responsibility. Celebrations is one thing, but the State government without proper planning, without taking emergency services into confidence, took this urgent and unfortunate decision. This could have been avoided,” he wrote in the post.