A stampede at a political rally organized by the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) at Karur in the southern state of Tamil Nadu on September 27 claimed the lives of 41 people.
The tragedy at Karur comes close on the heels of another stampede in Bengaluru on June 4 this year, which resulted in the deaths of 11 people.
The TVK’s founder-chief, Vijay, an actor turned politician, was present at the rally when the stampede occurred and fled the scene soon after.
A two-judge bench of the Madras High Court lashed out at the TVK and Vijay’s “irresponsible” attitude. Not only did Vijay flee the scene of the tragedy, but also the campaign bus he was travelling in rammed two motorcycles of cadres accompanying him. “Both the driver and the leader (Vijay) saw the accident but left the place without stopping… This court highly condemns the attitude of the party (TVK)… There was not even a remote sense of feeling expressed by the party taking responsibility for organizing such an event,” the court said. Instead of helping the victims, the leader “abandoned” his supporters.
In view of this “manmade disaster,” the High Court has banned all political rallies and roadshows along highways in Tamil Nadu until standard operating procedures are formulated.
Film stars, especially in South India, enjoy cult status and are idolized like deities. It is not uncommon to find even temples dedicated to them.
Fifty-one-year-old Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar, or Vijay, as he is known, is a very popular star in the Tamil film industry. Cashing on this popularity, Vijay launched his own party, the TVK, in February 2024 and declared his intent to contest the 2026 state assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. In the build-up to his electoral campaign, his political rallies have been drawing massive crowds in the state, which includes women and children desperate to catch a glimpse of the film star. Of the 41 dead in the stampede at Karur district, nine were children.
Karur was a scheduled halt for a rally as part of his election campaign, which began in Tiruchi on September 13. Vijay was scheduled to reach Karur, which was along a highway, at around 12:45 p.m., but he arrived there at 7 p.m. – six hours late.
By that time, the crowds that had been gathering since the morning in the sweltering heat had swelled. The administration was also not prepared for the thousands who joined Vijay’s cavalcade from Nammakal where he had addressed the crowds earlier in the day, and followed him to Karur.
It was a recipe for disaster.
By the time Vijay arrived at the venue, many in the crowd, especially women and children, had started collapsing from dehydration and exhaustion. No arrangements had been made for drinking water for such large numbers. According to The News Minute, what added to the chaos was the two accidents involving Vijay’s campaign bus. Eager to get a glimpse of Vijay through the glass-tinted windows of the bus, people rushed toward the vehicle.
The Madras High Court, which examined video footage of the incident, was appalled to see that Vijay’s bus did not stop even after hitting two motorbikes of his supporters, which came under its wheels.
The court has instituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the incident. It has also raised the issue of accountability for the tragedy.
Incidentally, in complaints filed in the cases related to the stampede, Vijay has not been named. The names of other party leaders figure in the complaints. Why did the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led state government show leniency to the film star when booking complaints?
Political dynamics appear to be at play and seem to have influenced the DMK government.
Tamil Nadu politics has long been a bipolar contest between the DMK and the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). But since the demise of AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha in 2016, the AIADMK’s popularity has declined significantly.
Vijay was hoping to fill the vacuum left by the AIADMK.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which has virtually no presence in Tamil Nadu and has been desperately trying to gain a toehold in the state, had reportedly reached out to Vijay for a political alliance for the 2026 polls.
Vijay’s political stock has considerably fallen after the Karur stampede. The tragedy laid bare not only his callousness but also his inexperience in handling the political fallout of the tragedy. His blaming of the ruling DMK for the stampede at Karur has not gone down well in Tamil Nadu.
In retrospect, it is evident that actors need more than star power to manage electoral campaigns. Political acumen, seasoned party workers adept at managing large crowds, and foresight are necessary to handle political campaigns in a large and volatile democracy like India’s.
Stampedes occur with shocking frequency in India. Large crowds are hard to control at the best of times. When crowds are swayed by adulation for a leader, sports heroes, and actors, they are even harder to control. Political events, religious gatherings and even large sporting events, therefore, often end up in tragic incidents in India.
When Telugu film star Allu Arjun arrived unannounced at a Hyderabad movie theater screening his blockbuster movie “Pushpa 2” in December last year, his arrival led to a stampede in which a 35-year-old woman died and her son was grievously injured. The Congress-led government in Telangana arrested Arjun, who was subsequently released by the courts.
In January this year, a massive stampede at the Hindu festival Maha Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh in northern India left 37 people dead, according to official figures. The BJP-led state government was criticized for its inadequate response to the tragedy and accused of massively downplaying the death toll.
Stampedes at celebrity-led events could be avoided with proper planning and robust crowd control measures in place — something that was absent during the Indian Premier League victory parade of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Bengaluru on June 4 this year. Eleven people died in the ensuing stampede. The Karnataka High Court held the RCB management responsible for the tragedy and has ordered the prosecution of its management.
India, the world’s most populous country, is treating the lives of its people with utter callousness. Those who are killed in stampedes are certainly not from the well-connected VIP category but from the masses and the poorer sections of society. The manner in which India moves from one stampede to another, with few lessons learned, indicates how little ordinary human lives mean to those who issue orders from the safety of their comfortable offices.
Meanwhile, the media and the public trudge on from one tragedy to another with little accountability that could prevent the recurrence of such incidents.