Messi’s Kolkata Visit Sparks Chaos; Athawale Slams West Bengal Government

By A Staff Reporter

Kolkata: Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Saturday criticised the West Bengal government for what he described as inadequate police arrangements during the visit of global football icon Lionel Messi to Kolkata, which reportedly witnessed chaotic scenes due to an overwhelming crowd.

Reacting to the incident, Athawale said Messi’s worldwide popularity naturally drew massive public attention, making crowd management a critical responsibility for the authorities. He noted that a huge number of fans gathered to catch a glimpse of the Argentine footballer, creating a challenging situation for the police on the ground.

“Lionel Messi is very famous worldwide. When he came to Kolkata yesterday, a huge crowd gathered to see him. It was not easy for the police to control them,” Athawale said. However, he maintained that the situation could have been handled better with advance planning. According to the Union Minister, the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government should have anticipated the scale of public turnout and ensured adequate deployment of police personnel and crowd-control measures.

Athawale alleged that the failure to make proper arrangements led directly to disorder and inconvenience for the public. “The state government should have ensured proper police arrangements in advance at such times so that no one faces any trouble. This chaos should not have happened,” he said.