AISYO Statement:
The All India Students and Youth Organisation (AISYO) expresses deep sorrow and rage over the horrific stampede at Bengaluru’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 4, 2025, during the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) IPL victory celebrations. This devastating incident, which claimed 11 lives and injured over 33 people, is a chilling reminder of how corporate greed and state neglect are destroying public safety. The tragedy unfolded as tens of thousands gathered to witness RCB’s first IPL title celebration in 18 years. Police had expected 100,000 people, but the crowd swelled to over 300,000, overwhelming the stadium’s meagre 32,000 capacity. Fans surged towards the gates, and basic crowd control measures collapsed. Videos show desperate fans climbing trees and scaling walls to glimpse the players. Police, resorting to lathi charges, only added to the chaos. Survivors like Shamili recall the nightmare: “I kept saying, ‘let’s go, let’s go’—the crowd was getting out of control,” she recounted from her hospital bed. “The next thing I knew, I was on the ground. People were walking over me. I thought I was going to die.” The victims include children, college students, and young tech workers. A doctor said most were “brought dead to hospital,” suffocated or crushed in the surge, while ambulances were delayed by gridlocked roads.
This was no accident of fate. It is the direct result of years of criminal mismanagement and the commodification of sports spaces for corporate profits. Chinnaswamy Stadium, like many other sports venues across India, has become a cash cow for corporate sponsors, advertisers, and the multi-billion-rupee cricket-industrial complex. Safety measures and basic infrastructure take a backseat when stadiums are turned into lucrative real estate ventures and platforms for commercial spectacle. Today, IPL viewership exceeds 620 million (62 crore) in India alone, with a total business value of over ₹1.3 lakh crore. While fans seek excitement and community, the IPL’s corporate backers including Ambani, Adani, and the BCCI extract record-breaking profits. IPL’s TV and digital rights deals (2023–27) stand at ₹48,390 crore. Tata’s sponsorship (2024–28) is worth ₹2,500 crore. Player auctions, like Rishabh Pant’s ₹27 crore price tag, turn athletes into commodities. Each IPL team is valued at ₹10,000–12,500 crore. Match day economies fuel hotels, bars, tourism, and FMCG sales. 3 lakh liters of water per day per stadium, even in drought-hit areas, are wasted for pitch maintenance. 1 lakh kilowatts of electricity burn for each season’s floodlit matches. Meanwhile, the BCCI—the world’s richest cricket board—pays zero income tax, using charity exemptions to hide profits.
The IPL’s rise coincided with the 2008 global economic crisis, crafted as a “business model game” to extract maximum profit, no matter the human cost. Beyond corporate profiteering, political power and cricket have become deeply entangled. The BCCI, wealthier than the ICC itself (with ₹18,000 crore in reserves), is controlled by political elites and business magnates. Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, BCCI Secretary, is now ICC President. State cricket associations are captured by politicians and corporate interests, ensuring that cricket’s billions remain in elite hands, tax-free and immune to accountability. Adding insult to injury, betting apps like Dream11 and My11Circle have been officially sanctioned by the BCCI, turning cricket into a legalized gambling empire. The IPL is not just a game; it is a system of looting the people’s passion, environment, and resources.
AISYO stands in solidarity with the victims and their families and will continue fighting for justice, accountability, and the transformation of sports spaces into places of safety and people’s pride, not corporate exploitation.
Demands:
- An immediate, transparent, and independent inquiry—not the usual whitewashing “probe”—to hold accountable those whose negligence endangered lives.
- Full, lifelong compensation and medical support to the injured and families of the deceased.
- Immediate halt to large-scale events until comprehensive safety, crowd control, and medical plans are enforced.
- An end to the reckless wastage of water and electricity by stadiums and IPL events, ensuring resources go first to people’s needs.
- Urgent review of the IPL’s exploitative and environmentally destructive practices
A. Suresh
Convenor,
All India Convening Committee,
All India Students and Youth Organisation (AISYO)
Date: 05-06-2025
Place: Vijayawada
