There was absolute visible shock in Kolkata as news of 19 confirmed deaths due to stampede at a Durga Puja pandal in north Kolkata on the evening of October 17 came in. From what we have learnt, around around 7:40 pm, there was a sudden rush of visitors that may have tried to seek the shelter of the puja pandal as soon as rain began. One of the approaches was reportedly too narrow and people’s movement in and out of the pandal was quite slow. These factors may have led to the stampede. People also claimed before TV cameras that there were no proper police or crowd management mechanisms in place — like in previous years. Huge crowds of anxious people soon gathered at the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital where some 25 more injured persons had been admitted. We heard chief minister Suvendu Adhikari, assuring all that everything that is required is being done. Then, he came out abruptly in his aggressive self at the hospital saying “we are not like other governments” without clarifying what exactly he meant. Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal remains sealed following a stampede, in Kolkata, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. Photo: PTI.The government has allegedly asked families of those being treated to move to a private hospital far away from this hurly burly — to defuse the crisis at India’s historic first medical college and hospital. The fact that he was indirectly admitting that this iconic institution was not that good touched a raw nerve, as common people know they could never afford expensive private medical treatment. Adhikari has promised to spend millions for treatment and “compensation” to get out of this terrible fix. The prime minister has also jumped in with hefty money bags to “compensate” for the dead, even as grief mixes with public fury across the city and state. One fact is certain: No government before Adhikari’s has ever faced such a public tragedy. Kolkata is known to manage mammoth crowds during Durga Pujas, and during its many political rallies, without any tragic incident or deaths arising from inadequate crowd management. After last year’s Durga Puja, Kolkata’s Metro rail reported some 42 lakh passengers travelling on it during the five days.That’s only the Metro. We have no statistics on how many passengers availed local trains, buses, trams, taxis and private transport. But, hazarding a guess of about one crore people out on the streets during the festival season, without an hour’s break in between, would not be an exaggeration. Seasoned police officers feel this is an underestimate. Relatives of victims killed in a stampede at the Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal, at a mortuary, in Kolkata, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026. Photo: PTI.What is remarkable is that not once before has there been any major incident of stampede in the last six decades. The Kolkata Police has (or had, till today) built a remarkable reputation for crowd management. So, what went so bizarrely wrong this time?The first fact that stands out is that West Bengal now has a one man government and the new highly visible and rather belligerent chief minister is running everything. There is another minister with a lot of ideas, who is the only other one in the pack of 41 who makes news, for the wrong reasons. She has sadly earned the reputation of being a public spectacle for taking rather controversial decisions that then backfire. Just four days ago, she supervised the painting of roads over important flyovers in vivid rainbow colours, but the very next day, after vehicles started skidding over paint, prompting Adhikari to get it all removed.No other minister ever seems to make any statement or advertise her or his work, and even a better known finance minister seals his lips, as a survival strategy. Thus, if one man is running everything, it is the chief minister, who (like Modi) hogs all the credit and, for some weird reason, is fire and brimstone all the time. He is dead against everyone – from students, secularists, ‘cockroach-protesters’ and the entire opposition, from the far left to the Mamata Trinamool Congress. Mamata Banerjee also had her bouts of aggression but could be all smiles the next day, but no one recalls the new chief minister on the latter mode. As a small town boy from Midnapore, Adhikari was a typical rough and tough acolyte of Banerjee, who was most vocal in tearing apart the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bengal. His videos of that phase still do the rounds, even as he turned a complete circle, by threatening all who dare criticise the BJP. He was caught in a sting operation in 2016 taking raw cash, for which he was charged with corruption by Modi’s minions, and personally heckled by the prime minister. In 2021, he switched over to the BJP, partly because he realised that he would have to accept an ambitious youngster, Mamata’s nephew, Abhishek, as his boss, but largely to greener pastures. The local BJP was not amused, but had to gulp it, as Amit Shah said so. The BJP soon pulled out all stops and poured in unimaginable amounts of money, while deploying large numbers of central armed police to guard every tiny leader in the state. The TMC was not deterred, either in corruption or in its arrogant public swagger, which made it easier for the BJP to advance. The rest is a story of a Chief Election Commissioner who deleted close to one crore voters in West Bengal with utter impunity. He had an indulgent apex court, and carried out an election with an occupation force of central armed forces in the state — overwhelmingly bigger than what the state had witnessed before. In May 2026, Adhikari had created another record — that of running an entire state government for a month practically without a cabinet. Even after his cabinet was sworn in, obviously by the central BJP, he made sure that no grass grew under his feet. The chief minister went on a rampage against the 27% Muslim population of the state — slashing schemes, hounding them as Bangladeshis, tormenting them during festivals, raiding their institutions — as a more Hindu Jehadi than any “originally BJP” leader could ever be. He brought over some 90% of those Trinamool MLAs who managed to win in spite of the rage against that party’s highhandedness and depredations. Incidentally, this assured them immunity from criminal charges and strengthened “his own role” in the government.After Muslims, the first BJP chief minister’s next strategy was to spread terror through his rough language and unabashedly partisan actions of his administration. When students in Jadavpur University protested against an attack by goons, he led a massive demonstration of the saffron brigade, shocking many with his band of semi-clad Naga sadhus. He personally threatened the students and faculty from the main gate of the university, thereby creating a new record. His top priority was to clear hawkers from railway property which was quite controversial, as the masses in the state survive on a low cost economy.The same police force that he had attacked for years as accomplices of Banerjee’s rotten regime were soon on his side, carrying out every command, right or wrong. He let loose his police against all protesters in the state, attacking the “Cockroaches” quite ruthlessly, and then going hammer and tongs against the Left and Trinamool. In fact, he spent all his energies during the Pujas to stifle dissent and stop the left parties from organising book stalls near prominent Durga Pujas, as they had always done. His factotums ensured that a recent Civic Convention on Gyanesh Kumar’s SIR operations in this state could not be held indoors. The convention’s huge public gathering under the open skies should serve as a timely warning — but nothing seems to register. Adhikari also invited a handsome young Babaji from western India and supported him, even as he abused the people of the state for eating non vegetarian food during Durga Puja (Navaratri). The whole state was up in arms against this intrusion but Adhikari ordered his police to arrest some who had “desecrated” the Babaji’s photo. He stood by “upcountry Hindu orthodoxy” that insisted that every Puja in the state observe Shastric rituals and convert a people’s celebration into a rigid Hindu one. In a state of absolute power, Adhikari and his police soon forgot the plural ethos of the state and its sensitivity to advice from orthodox Hindus. Suvendu and his ministers just do not realise how bad their Hindi is, but they continue to make all sorts of statements in that language – which evokes negative feelings here, but also contributes to the regime’s only streak of humour. The single message of all this evidence is that a police force that had a reputation for effective crowd control appeared to be more preoccupied in avoiding the wrath of its new masters for its unabashed partiality during the earlier regime. The favoured few were certainly keener to bulldoze book stalls of the left parties at the puja pandals yesterday (which it did) than in managing gargantuan crowds of visitors. The tragedy at the north Kolkata puja spot could have been avoided if only the police was permitted to be more professional and less partisan — and the chief minister behaved more impartially as the executive head of government, not as a newly converted but less tolerant religious right wing rabble rouser.Even the most hostile home minister that India has ever seen is in Kolkata today, after cancelling all his public programmes, and is rushing back after meeting those who are hospitalised. One only hopes that he may give some brotherly advice to his acolyte, Adhikari, that political fury is certainly no substitute for good governance. Jawhar Sircar is a former Rajya Sabha MP of the Trinamool Congress. He was earlier secretary, Government of India, and CEO of Prasar Bharati.