By Dhruvi Shah
Recent weeks saw several government changes in West Bengal in light of the chaotic situation created by the presence of international soccer star Lionel Messi in Kolkata, India, at Salt Lake Stadium on December 13th. On December 16th, Sports Minister Aroop Biswas submitted his resignation on moral grounds for not handling the event correctly.
On December 16th, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee approved Biswas’s resignation and immediately announced that she would be taking direct responsibility for the Sports Department until a thorough and impartial investigation has been conducted regarding the events that took place at Vivekananda Yuva Bharati Krirangan.
During the event, the stadium was full to capacity, with many fans having purchased very expensive tickets in order to catch a glimpse of Messi. However, due to the limited amount of time Messi was present and poor crowd control, frustration soon turned into chaos, resulting in significant damage to the stadium. Videos and photos that circulated on social media created even higher levels of public outrage and further angered opposition parties when they revealed Sports Minister Aroop Biswas posing for photos with Messi.
State authorities moved swiftly in response to the aftermath of the incident. They issued show-cause notices to multiple senior officials, including the Director General of Police (DGP), Rajeev Kumar; former Police Commissioner, Mukesh Kumar; and Principal Secretary of Youth Affairs & Sports, Rajesh Kumar Sinha. Meanwhile, Bidhannagar Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Aneesh Sarkar was relieved of duty and charges were filed against him with the intent to cause harm to the state.
In addition to these immediate actions taken by the government, there will be a comprehensive investigation into this matter by a Special Investigative Team (SIT). This team will include several Senior Police Officers from across all of the multidisciplinary divisions and will reflect how seriously the government takes this incident. Simultaneously, a Judicial Inquiry Commission will be created by Retired Justice Ashim Kumar Ray, along with the Chief Secretary Manoj Pant, who will be tasked with reviewing the entire chronology of events, as well as the subsequent actions or inactions that precipitated this riot.
The Chief Minister of West Bengal has publicly apologised to Lionel Messi, as well as all fans and enthusiasts of sports for the unfortunate incident and reaffirmed that West Bengal continues to strive to uphold itself as an attractive international location for global sporting events.
At this time, the legal proceedings are being undertaken against the persons primarily associated with the organisation and encouragement of the disturbances. Satadru Dutta, the primary event organiser, has been taken into police custody by the authorities, and there are multiple others in custody for committing acts of vandalism.
The situation has created an expansive conversation regarding the management, the responsibility and the method of administering events and has created a major shift within the landscape of political administration throughout West Bengal.