In this episode of South Central, hosts Dhanya Rajendran, Pooja Prasanna, and Leena Reghunath discuss the Bengaluru Chinnaswamy stampede with senior journalist Nandini Chandrasekhar. They weigh in on whether the Karnataka government is scapegoating the police and evading responsibility.
Dhanya points out how everyone – the police, state, RCB – is now pointing towards the other party and passing the buck.
“Siddaramaiah said he did not permit the event in the first place and that initially he did not know of the stampede. That is appalling,” says Pooja.
Nandini adds that with such a huge crowd turning up on the roads after RCB’s IPL win, with or without the Chinnaswamy event, preparations should have been made to manage the crowd and ensure safety.
In the second part of the episode, the hosts are joined by special guest singer Chinmayi Sripaada. She was one of the first and few women in the Tamil industry to call out lyricist Vairamuthu in 2018 for sexual harassment. After years of being pushed out, her recent track “Muthamazhai” for Mani Ratnam-AR Rahman team’s Thug Life has fans asking why she was kept away from Tamil music for so many years.
“Finally, for a change, people can remember I sing, and it makes me happy. Now they are speaking about the older songs I sang, and it's nice to be here after six or seven years of abuse, abuse, abuse,” Chinmayi says.
Leena points out how this systemic erasure of talent is typical of a patriarchal society and work system. “Even the media covering women who speak up is upsetting. When the WCC gave its first press meet, it was appalling to see how the mediapersons jumped at them with no respect,” she says.
As Pooja, Dhanya and Leena request, Chinmayi does what she does best – she sings for us.
Tune in.
Listen & follow on Apple
Listen & follow on Spotify
Once a month, we will invite one TNM subscriber to the show.
Write to us on what you would like to speak about to southcentral@thenewsminute.com
Send your thoughts, suggestions, and criticism as well.
You can also let us know what you think by filling out our quick feedback form.
Your suggestions help shape future episodes of South Central.
Audio timecodes
00:01:52- Introduction
00:03.32 - Headlines
00:09:14 - RCB Chinnaswamy Stampede
00:19:43 - Chinmayi Sripaada
001:08:49 - Letters
01:21:12- Recommendations
References
Muththa Mazhai - Chinmayi Performance
‘Not our event’: The blame game behind Bengaluru’s deadly cricket stadium stampede
Exclusive: Top Telangana bureaucrat’s daughter’s wedding gala sponsored by mystery company?
Real reasons behind Bengaluru Police Commissioner’s suspension | Powertrip #106
‘Good poet, but not good human’: Veteran music composer Gangai Amaran about Vairamuthu
Vairamuthu’s Accusers On The Poet And His Predatory Ways
Recommendations
Chinmayi Sripaada
Nandini Chandrasekhar
How colleges in India bribe assessors to get higher grades
Leena Raghunath
Pooja Prasanna
Exclusive: Hospital, police records suggest at least 79 deaths in Kumbh stampede
Dhanya Rajedran
Become a subscriber - Click here.
Contribute to our reporting fund. Click here.
To check out our other shows, Click here
To not miss any updates, join TNM's WhatsApp Channel! Click here
Produced by Bhuvan Malik, edited by Jaseem Ali.
For now, this podcast is outside the paywall. We hope you listen, enjoy and send it to a friend. And remember, we have a host of other work too: news reports, podcasts, video stories and interviews, all exclusively for subscribers. Click here to subscribe for quality journalism that is truly in public interest.
Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.
