IPL semis shifted to Mumbai

IPL chief Lalit Modi (statement on the change of venue for IPL semis to Mumbai):  Current environment in Bangalore prevents us from continuing with our original plans.

Karnataka home ministe V S Acharya:  It’s wrong if the shift was for security reasons…some forces did not want the matches to be held in Bangalore.

DGP Ajay Kumar Singh:   Saturday’s blasts at Bangalore’s Chinnaswamy stadium were not terror attack….no need for public to panic or heed to rumours.

Chief minister B S Yeddyurappa:  Blasts outside the stadium and subsequent detection of crude bombs were minor ones….Bangalore is a secure centre…our police are capable of handling any eventuality.

(Police claimed that 3-tier security was in place ; and anti-sabotage check had been done (prior to the blast). They had deployed a 1000 cops, and 600 more came in  after the incident.)

Karnataka State Cricket Association president Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar cited BCCI president Shashank Manohar as saying,  ‘IPL forced to shift venue as an extraordinary measure keeping in mind the players and public safety.

Varied voices confuse,  rather than clarify anything.  The photo on top of this post, though meant to reassure us, wouldn’t encourage me to go anywhere near the cricket stadium for the next few days,  let alone join a crowd to watch a match there.  They may make the stadium secure, cent percent.  But at what cost ? My sense is that such heavy police bandobast  for IPL  comes  at the expense of the overall policing of the city.  Wouldn’t it  send a signal to mischief-makers ?  Make some other parts  of  Bangalore city vulnerable ?

Question is : Can we afford to lock in so much  policing resources in a city on a single sporting event ?  IPL isn’t exactly a non-profit. Being a multi-millon dollar enterprise ,  shouldn’t IPL spend some crores on upkeep of its own security force ? IPL can’t justify  police deployment on a significant  scale by saying they pay for the police bandobast .