#WATCH | Kolkata, West Bengal: Angry fans resort to vandalism at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, alleging poor management of the event.
— ANI (@ANI) December 13, 2025
Star footballer Lionel Messi has left the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata.
A fan of star footballer Lionel Messi said, "Absolutely terrible… pic.twitter.com/TOf2KYeFt9
The chaos in Kolkata is not an isolated embarrassment. It echoes, disturbingly, the tragic stampede in Bengaluru earlier this year, during Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL victory celebrations, where at least 11 people lost their lives. One incident ended in vandalism and humiliation; the other ended in death. The underlying cause in both cases, however, is the same administrative collapse under opposition governments.
Kolkata: A global embarrassment
Messi arrived at Salt Lake Stadium alongside Inter Miami teammates Rodrigo de Paul and Luis Suárez, triggering scenes of unrestrained frenzy that any competent administration should have anticipated. The Argentine icon entered the stadium during the second half of the Mohun Bagan vs Diamond Harbour match. The moment his Audi rolled onto the turf, anyone with access to the field surged towards the vehicle.
Police personnel, cameramen, pitch invaders, organisers, ministers, and VVIPs converged simultaneously. Instead of enforcement, what echoed through the stadium were desperate pleas from organisers: “Please give him space, please vacate the field.” That line alone captured the failure; the State had surrendered control of its own venue.
Messi, dressed in black and tightly ringed by security, struggled to move as the crowd swelled by the minute. Despite spending over 15 minutes on the ground, organisers failed to clear even a basic viewing corridor. Thousands of ticket-holders, many of whom paid up to Rs 10,000, could barely spot him. At 5’7”, Messi was hardly visible even from the press box, while photographers were left guessing where exactly the GOAT was amid the human crush.
Watch Lionel Messi surrounded by politicians and officials at Kolkata's Salt Lake Stadium moments before chaos erupted.
— Firstpost Sports (@FirstpostSports) December 13, 2025
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The chaos was compounded by the presence of ministers and VVIPs swarming the footballer, including event organiser Satadru Dutta and West Bengal sports minister Aroop Biswas. What should have been a fan-centric moment was converted into a political spectacle, further fuelling public anger.
Chants of “Messi, Messi” soon gave way to loud boos. Within minutes, frustration spilt into vandalism. Plastic bottles and debris were hurled. The stadium property was damaged. The law-and-order situation deteriorated so rapidly that police were forced to resort to a lathi-charge to disperse the crowd.
Just 22 minutes after entering the stadium, Messi was escorted back to his car. As he departed, fans shouted “We want Messi,” many leaving without ever laying eyes on the football legend they had paid dearly to see.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee later issued an apology on X and announced an enquiry committee headed by a retired judge, a familiar opposition reflex: post-facto remorse instead of preventive governance.
Bengaluru: The same failure, with fatal consequences
If Kolkata was a warning, Bengaluru, earlier this year, was the tragedy that had already unfolded.
During RCB’s first-ever IPL title celebrations after 18 years, a massive crowd gathered outside the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. The event was entirely foreseeable. The scale of public enthusiasm was obvious well in advance. Yet, the Congress-led Karnataka government failed to prepare.
The result was a deadly stampede that killed at least 11 people and injured dozens more. Eyewitness accounts and viral videos revealed bottlenecked entry points, uncontrolled crowd surges, poor barricading, and an underprepared police and emergency response system. Fans were packed shoulder to shoulder with no clearly demarcated entry or exit routes, a fundamental violation of crowd-management protocols.
This was not an act of fate. It was a man-made disaster.
The failure stands in sharp contrast to how Mumbai handled Team India’s T20 World Cup victory parade last year. Under the NDA-led Maharashtra government, an open-bus procession along Marine Drive drew an even larger crowd, stretching from Nariman Point to Chowpatty. Yet, through meticulous planning, layered security, and firm policing, not a single major incident occurred.
In Bengaluru, no open-bus parade was even attempted. And yet, even a stadium-centric celebration turned fatal.
Governance without authority
Taken together, the Kolkata chaos and the Bengaluru tragedy earlier this year reveal a consistent pattern. Opposition governments prioritise optics over order, symbolism over systems, and appeasement over enforcement.
They politicise the police. They hesitate to impose discipline. They fear being seen as “strict.” And when disorder inevitably follows, they retreat into apologies, compensation announcements, and enquiry committees.
Law and order is not optional governance. It is the foundation of the state’s legitimacy.
Messi being whisked away unseen amid a lathi-charge in Kolkata and fans being trampled to death in Bengaluru earlier this year are not unfortunate coincidences. They are symptoms of a deeper governance failure.
India does not need more post-event apologies. It needs governments that prevent chaos before it erupts.
And time and again, opposition-ruled states have shown that when it comes to maintaining law and order, the most basic function of governance, they are simply not fit for the job.
