Hathras Or Pushpa 2, Every Stampede’s A Govt Failure

Actor Allu Arjun’s arrest for the stampede at the premiere of Pushpa 2 may have been Hyderabad police’s ploy to shift focus from its own failures in crowd management. But this has led to sympathy for the actor (not to mention free publicity for an already popular movie) and cast a harsher spotlight on police failure. After all, massive crowds gathering for movie premieres is not a new phenomenon in Hyderabad, capital of Telugu film industry. By now, foolproof protocols should have been established for such events, both by the film industry and police officials.
At the same time, a dictionary will tell you that the word ‘stampede’ is usually used for out-of-control animals, mostly horses and cattle, running in one direction, because they are either frightened or excited. If it involves people, many experts prefix ‘human’ before ‘stampede’ just to make the distinction. If authorities in India don’t make that distinction, then something is seriously wrong with crowd management skills in the world’s most populous country. It perhaps shows that we don’t differentiate between a large herd of cattle and a large gathering of people and use similar tactics to manage both — wielding the danda.