Stampedes are not unknown in India where crowd surges at events of various kinds, ranging from the spiritual to the temporal as in events when the distribution of freebies takes place to the political as during the deaths of revered leaders, have taken the lives of many innocent people. A political rally was, however, an unlikely location for a tragedy of the scale that took place at a rally held by actor-politician Vijay in Tamil Nadu. When the crowd surged to get a closer glimpse of the star, the loss of lives stretched to a cruel 40 and counting.
Several reasons could be listed for this avoidable tragedy — beginning with the actor’s late arrival that kept the crowd waiting for hours to police laxity as well as a deliberate delay in granting permission for a chosen route and location for the road show that came only the night before the tragedy leaving little room for serious preparation of the type needed for effective crowd control, etc.
Particular possible causes of the tragedy are being highlighted depending on which side of the political spectrum the analysis emanates from. The blame game goes on. A huge contributing factor was that Vijay’s long campaign van had to wade through the crowd at a particularly narrow and inappropriate location causing a jam that the weakest people in the crowd could not negotiate.
More importantly, the advent of Vijay into active politics ahead of the Assembly elections in the summer of 2026 has become a phenomenon not seen even in this cinema-crazed state in which at least five personalities in acting or scriptwriting aligned with filmmaking have gone on to become chief ministers.
To manage Vijay’s rallies, given the behaviour of his frenzied fans who have built up a record of destruction of public places, is a huge challenge. But, so far, the intense political rivalry that has been highlighted with his entry has been a culprit because the police may be acting as the handmaiden of the powers that be, placing countless constraints on his rallies and providing very little cover by way of a police force enforcing proper crowd control measures.
Vijay’s fledgling party has been equally culpable of trying to cash in on his rising popularity as a politician by conducting road shows in smaller towns without the infrastructure like big grounds for public gatherings associated with power politics. The occurrence of mysterious events like power going off at the venue, audio malfunction, routes to the rally being blocked off by the police have also contributed to the restlessness that has come to be associated with his rallies.
In leaving the stampede site in a hurry and making an air dash to Chennai, Vijay may have lost some sympathy while all other leaders rushed to the town to show empathy to the injured and kin of the dead. Vijay was, however, doubly generous in handing out compensation, which has become the only solace that the nation routinely offers every time a crowd surge leads to common people losing their lives in their irrational seeming desire to catch sight of their favourite film stars, celebrities of the world of glamour and sport, godmen or even have darshan of their gods.
