At 7.20pm on Saturday, as actor-politician Vijay reached Velusamypuram in Karur for his people outreach campaign, several thousands waiting to get a glimpse of their favourite actor went crazy. Young men and women, along with their children, climbed up the rooftops of the shops and buildings, atop trees, a transformer, and even crowded in front of Vijay’s bus.
The death toll in the stampede at Vijay’s rally in Karur has touched 41, including six children and 16 women, while hundreds of people are being treated at various hospitals in and around Karur. Many of them THE WEEK met in the aftermath of the mishap are yet to come out of the shock, while many are shattered after losing their loved ones to the disaster.
While several reasons and many conspiracy theories are being floated about the cause of the stampede, the mishap highlights the craze to see a cinema star and the crazy fandom. In a state where cinema and politics have always been bedfellows, only former chief minister M.G. Ramachandran succeeded in the art of converting his fandom into a well-informed political following.
Though Vijay aims to be an MGR, his political party--Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam--is still in its early stages, and fans are not politicised yet. And, exactly this was one of the major reasons for the Karur tragedy. It was like release of his blockbuster movies and grand audio launches, a few minutes speech by the star amidst a cheering crowd, which is mostly unmanageable.
And thanks to Vijay, for always building a narrative against the ruling DMK and the police department, saying that those in the corridors of power are trying to crush him. And, even in Nagapattinam, speaking from his bus, Vijay said the government was behind the power cuts and the audio glitch at his rally in Trichy. “There is a thin line that separates a crowd from a mass and a mob. In the case of the crowd at Vijay’s rally, they are mostly young fans and not committed cadres. It was unpredictable and uncontrollable following during the actor’s earlier sojourns, and Karur was no exception to this,” said Pichandy Chinnasamy, an academic who had studied extensively on the mass political rallies and gatherings in the state since veteran politician C.N. Annadurai's days.
Pichandy equates the psychology of the crowd to Pel Mel theory and the Pied Piper syndrome. The Pied Piper syndrome is named after the folkloric figure who leads rats and then children away with his pipe. Metaphorically, it is used to describe situations where a person leads others in a potentially destructive or misguided way. In Tamil Nadu, though stardom has always helped the leaders reap political power - leaders like MGR, Karunanidhi or Jayalalithaa, or even Dr. S. Ramadoss for that reason, could bring order in any mass situation in an authoritative voice. “Poor planning, lack of organisational skills, leadership vacuum at the district and grassroots level, all put together have greatly let down Vijay at Karur,” Pichandy notes.
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In fact, the organisers did not listen to the instructions from the police despite several requests, according to highly placed sources. If Vijay had followed the instructions of the police and stopped his vehicle 50 metres away from the console, the crowd that was standing in front of the bus would have just stayed there. When the bus moved forward, violating the instructions of the Karur town DSP to a place near the console, the crowd standing in the front started moving towards right and left side, that was already fully packed and undergoing suffocation, which led to the stampede.
Incidentally, the crowd was in no mood to listen to the instructions from the police, as Vijay’s narrative was that the ruling DMK government and the police were trying to crush him. When in Trichy, Vijay mocked the administrators, pointing out that one of the instructions from the police was that he should not wave his hands outside the window to the crowd. “CM sir! Are you threatening me?” he asked, when he launched his fist rally on September 13 at Tirchy.
However, Vijay’s narrative and his idea of making a political gain out of the rules and regulations imposed for conducting rallies seems to have earned him a soft corner among the people, even after the Karur tragedy claiming 41 lives.
