The deadly stampede in Bengaluru during the Royal Challengers Bangalore victory celebrations has triggered police FIRs, the arrest of the team’s marketing head, the suspension of senior police officers and the institution of a judicial probe.

These actions may serve to mitigate public anger at the official incompetence that led to the tragedy in the short run, but Bengaluru’s catastrophe points to aggravating urban dysfunction and crowd management in India.

Karnataka’s capital has even otherwise come to symbolise civic paralysis under successive governments, and there was a lamentable lack of alacrity among authorities regarding the likelihood of chaos and mayhem at the RCB victory parade.

The threat of stampedes increasingly looms over several........

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