A day after 96 people got injured when a tent set up for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in West Bengal’s Midnapore town collapsed, the decorator on Tuesday claimed that the mishap could have been avoided had police personnel and BJP workers heeded his warnings. Rajiv Kumar Singh, the proprietor of J N Decorators, who also built the stage, is now in the eye of a storm. On Tuesday, an FIR was lodged against him, the contractor and organiser (BJP) of the rally under IPC sections including 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others). Police have initiated a probe and the Centre has asked the state government for a report on the incident. The police have asked Singh not to dismantle the stage or enter the area where the tent collapsed. A forensics team visited the site Tuesday. Speaking to The Indian Express, Singh said, “Around 10 am, we saw one or two people climbing up the barricades set up by police and then on to the scaffolding of the mega tents in front of the stage. We asked the police to bring them down. They did not pay heed. We also warned the BJP workers, volunteers and leaders about the same.” “By 11 pm, more people started climbing up the scaffoldings. When the Prime Minister took the stage, people were perched like pigeons on them. It was raining for the past four days in Midnapore, the ground was wet. Suddenly, one of the structures came down,” said Singh. The Kolkata-based decorator was hired by the BJP to build the stage and tents for Modi’s ‘Krishak Kalyan Samabesh’. Singh said he charged Rs 12 lakh for the event, and that his team took five days to set up the tents and stage. Each of the two mega tents measured 360 ft by 70 ft, while the stage measured 35 ft by 24 ft. Singh said that over the past decade, he had done several such set-ups for rallies by political parties including the BJP and Congress. "I have set up stages and tents for Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi in various parts of Bengal. Nothing happened. Do you think I would be given the job if I did not do it well?" he asked. "I made the stage for Narendra Modi when he held a public meeting in Howrah during the Lok Sabha campaigns among others. I was also given the responsibility of setting up a stage for Rahul Gandhi's mega rally on the Park Circus grounds during the Assembly polls," he told this newspaper, adding that his family had been in the business for the 17 years. Asked if he will cooperate with the police, Singh said, "I have nothing to hide. I am a businessman and a decorator. The structure is there for everyone to see. I have no bad record in so many years." State BJP secretary Sayantan Basu said, "The decorator was chosen following all norms. We expected four lakh people at the rally but six lakh people showed up. This was much more than what we had prepared for, or expected. As for the cases lodged by police, the government does it every day against us."
