JUST SPAMMIMG | Seven Days That Taught Several Lessons
Instead of spawning heart-rending human stories that normally come out after such disasters, the media, including the social media, took a stern political stand, which led to the sorrow, sufferings and pains of the victims, particularly those who lost their young children, getting buried under an avalanche of political and analytical outpourings
The seven days between the stampede at Karur and the Madras High Court hauling up the party in whose event it happened and the authorities, several politicians and their parties were being pushed to the edge to take different positions on the tragedy. Since the media, too, was awash with news, views, analysis and what not on the disaster, in which 41 persons lost their lives, people gained varied perspectives, both political and otherwise, with the whole episode throwing up a plethora of takeaways. Stampedes are not new to Tamil Nadu but the one that took place at the campaign rally of the Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), spearheaded by actor Vijay, took a curious political course in its aftermath, pushing the tragic element of the catastrophe behind it.
Instead of spawning heart-rending human stories that normally come out after such disasters, the media, including the social media, took a stern political stand, which led to the sorrow, sufferings and pains of the victims, particularly those who lost their young children, getting buried under an avalanche of political and analytical outpourings. In fact the narratives turned intriguing and laden with innuendos because a collective human misery also became an opportunity for finding electoral allies with every political party, not just the local ones but also the national behemoths, trying to make capital out of the cataclysm that was termed as ‘man-made’ by the Madras High Court.
Making use of the grim situation, BJP and the Congress were seen as pandering to the base political instinct of latching on to a reluctant party at its Darkest Hour. Since TVK was not entertaining the entreaties for an alliance for the 2026 Assembly elections that were not too far away, the parties felt that by expressing support they could win over it. While the Congress seemingly made the overture through a telephonic conversation between Rahul Gandhi and Vijay – rumours were even floating about them discussing seat sharing, though not confirmed – the BJP was rather blunt when it dispatched a select band of honchos under the leadership of their celebrity MP, Hema Malini, to find out how the stampede happened.
How many other similar mishaps in the States have the BJP investigated by sending a team of its leaders is not known. But Hema Malini and her team members spoke about the stampede soon after arriving in Karur, betraying the suspected intentions of their party. It needed to be noted that Vijay was apparently down with sorrow and grief ever since he scooted Karur amidst the chaos at the venue of the meeting that he was addressing from atop the specially designed bus. He had reached Trichy to catch his chartered flight and at the airport, he did not even respond to the queries of the waiting media – did not even say that he was distressed by the disaster – and reached home in a huff to go into what was seemingly a sulk when Rahul Gandhi called him.
If Rahul Gandhi was following the news of the stampede, he would have known that Vijay, till the time he called, had not reacted to the tragedy that began unfolding in front of his eyes and it was the State government that was involved in relief operations. Since he knew the head of the government, M K Stalin, personally as a ‘brother’ – did he not jump over barricades to buy a box of sweets for that ‘brother’ not too long ago in Coimbatore – would it not have been proper to enquire about the situation at Karur – if that was what he wanted to do – with Stalin? Even if Vijay needed consolation, as the Congress could have presumed, should not Rahul Gandhi be concerned about the families of the victims, with whom only the government was in touch and not Vijay or his party members.
But despite the Congress and DMK continuing in the same coalition, Rahul Gandhi called up Vijay, which actually pepped up the latter and made him come up with the video that in turn intrigued the people more. In that video, among other things, Vijay was heard telling Stalin that he would be either at home or office and could be met there. If Stalin wanted to take revenge, he should meet him at his home or office and not take his party leaders to task, he said, making people wonder if he knew what he was talking about. After the stampede, it was the police that was cracking down on those whose administrative lapses are suspected to have caused the tragedy and why should the leader of a political party challenge the Chief Minister like a celluloid hero in a gangster movie?
Was it out of habit? For, Vijay had essayed in many gangster movies and delivered similar dialogues challenging the villain to come to his lair. Perhaps not, let us hope. But what was more disturbing for many was the lack of remorse for the certain goof-ups that caused the stampede. Vijay mentioned that they did not do anything other than holding the meeting at the designated spot, which overlooked his apparent mistakes and suggested that it was Stalin or the State government that caused the stampede. Well, that now looks like the new formula that Vijay has adopted: Just keep slamming the ruling party without revealing your agenda. Whether it will help win the election are not is not known.
