India, June 9 -- This year, stampedes at a major railway station in Delhi, at the Maha Kumbh in Uttar Pradesh, and during a cricket match victory celebration in Karnataka have led to at least 72 deaths and a few hundred injuries so far - a grim statistic which exposes the glaring gaps in crowd regulation rules, official apathy and tokenistic governance.

Action taken following these tragic, largely preventable deaths does little to avert such incidents in the future - after the June 4 stampede in Bengaluru, the state leadership, replicating the action of its counterparts in other parts of the country, suspending the city's top cop and other police staff, and ordered a magisterial inquiry. Later, the Karnataka high court also took suo motu...