At least 39 people, including 16 women and 10 children, lost their lives in a stampede during Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief Vijay’s campaign rally in Karur, Tamil Nadu, on Saturday. The tragedy unfolded as the narrow, overcrowded venue turned chaotic, with people fainting and panic spreading through the packed crowd. Vijay was forced to halt his speech midway as rescue efforts began, leaving the venue strewn with belongings like chappals, bottles, and flags, highlighting the scale of disorder. Questions are now being raised about how permission was granted for such a massive rally at the cramped location.
00:00Well, in fact, I'm reporting from that spot where Vijay was exactly here and that explains why this whole place has been barricaded.
00:07You can see how chapels, water bottles, TVK shawls, flags have been just strewn around.
00:13That just explains the kind of chaos that has broken out here yesterday.
00:17It's absolutely messy, Akshita.
00:19This whole road that we see, it is a two-way stretch but very, very narrow.
00:24One can only wonder and be absolutely shocked as to how is it that permission was even given in the first place to have Vijay's event right at this particular location.
00:34When everyone knows the kind of fan and frenzy and followers that Vijay has, how is it that permission was given to have a speech in this particular spot?
00:43You can just see in those visuals how narrow this particular road is.
00:46This entire road, it's not a one-way road, it's a two-way road which means this road which is already pretty small is divided into two parts for making it a two-way street.
00:56You can just see how this whole space is so crammed and restricted.
01:00We believe Vijay was here.
01:02You know, what we're also learning from our police sources is that the crowd got, you know, the crowd surged because there was already a set of crowd that was following Vijay when he was coming in from Namakal.
01:13So, it's because of the sudden surge in crowd from Namakal why this particular situation has risen over here.
01:20You can see how all these slippers, clothes, water bottles, plastics, bags, party flags have been just strewn around this entire structure of road.
01:29It's absolutely chaotic and messy.
01:32I just want to show you this particular barricaded place that has the speakers over here.
01:37This particular speaker was for Vijay's speech.
01:40This is where his entire speech was played out, Vijay's party anthem, the flag song, everything was played out from this particular spot.
01:48This entire place has been cordoned off for security purpose.
01:52This is where the actual evidence is going to lie to really find out as to whose fault this was, who should actually take the responsibility.
02:01Why is it that the police, you know, even gave permission to have a political rally in a space that's as constricted as this?
02:08Did the police know the kind of people that would come for Vijay?
02:12Was there an utter lapse in failure of police intelligence?
02:15Why is it that the police didn't anticipate that so many people would come in such large numbers?
02:21In fact, it's, you know, what's all the more shocking is that the police department believed when TVK said that only 10,000 people would come.
02:29That, you know, explains volumes as to how there was a dereliction of duty.
02:33The TVK had promised the police department that only 10,000 people would come.
02:38So, you know, so the onus, Sakshita, lies on both the TVK and the police department for miscalculating the kind of crowd that would turn up.
02:46The police says that they were prepared for about 15,000 people.
02:49But, you know, but the kind of people that turned up, it was massive.
02:53It was much, much larger than that.
02:55And remember, despite thousands of people coming here, there were only 500 police personnel.
03:00That is all the more shocking.
03:02How is just 500 policemen enough for thousands of people who have gathered over here?
03:08We are learning close to 30,000 people have gathered over here.
03:11Obviously, they are underplaying the numbers.
03:13If we do take a look at those drone shots, we can really see the number runs much higher than that.
03:18So, how is it just 500 police personnel would be enough to control crowd that's as frenzied,
03:24that's such huge running up to thousands, you know, tens of thousands of numbers.
03:28500 police personnel was so insufficient and inadequate.
03:33That's the kind of defense that the police personnel are giving, that TVK underplayed these numbers.
03:39In fact, the onus lies on both the police department and TVK.
03:42I want to show you this entire surrounding over here, this entire stretch of road that's dotted with TVK posters,
03:49TVK flags is where this particular election rally was held.
03:53And this exact spot that we are reporting from is where the stampede-like situation happened.
03:5839 lives that we are talking about have been lost.
04:01Very innocent lives for absolutely no fault of theirs have been lost.
04:05We are talking about little children, men and women alike,
04:09who just wanted to get a glimpse of actor-turn Neta Vijay, have remained mum, have remained silent.
04:14And what's all the more disappointing, deeply disappointing,
04:17is that for somebody who wanted to project himself as the next Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu,
04:22has fled the situation where he was directly responsible for.
04:26He's there, safely ensconced at his Nilangare villa in Chennai, while people here are dying.
04:32People here are dead because they wanted to see Vijay.
04:35A lot of questions are being raised about the kind of lack of accountability and responsibility
04:41that we are seeing on behalf of Vijay.
04:44Apart from one Twitter post, Akshita, Vijay has not spoken a single word.
04:48Remember, it's been more than 12 hours since the devastating tragedy has taken place
04:53and Vijay has not spoken a single word.
04:56He is there with full security at his Nilangare plush residence in Chennai, still not spoken a word.
05:02Well, in fact, some visuals that we saw, how people were trying to break out of the huts
05:07is, you know, is truly, truly very, very scary.
05:11You know, in fact, this whole place, it got so suffocated that people only wanted one way out.
05:16And, you know, if you take a look at this area, this full area is closed off.
05:19There is no way out of this particular stretch of road.
05:23It's fully locked in.
05:25And hence, people tried finding their way or trying to get a grasp of air.
05:29And that's why we even saw visuals of how people were breaking huts to just get out of this place.
05:35In fact, I just want to highlight, you know, some lapses that we saw on part of the government.
05:40Number one, permission granted despite being aware that a large crowd was expected.
05:45Number two, intelligence failure on behalf of the police department.
05:49Why is it that they didn't anticipate the kind of crowd that Vijay would manage to pull off?
05:54Number three, absolutely no precautionary measure that was taken by the police to manage the crowd.
06:00500 police personnel for a crowd as big as this is abysmally low.
06:04Number four, what was the need to lati charge the crowd is what everyone's asking.
06:09Although the DGP denies lati charge, we did see visuals,
06:13actually, where the people were being lati charged in order to disperse the crowd.
06:17And this lati charge has added to even more chaos.
06:21Next, coming into the lapses of TVK.
06:24Despite knowing that the venue was congested, why is it that the event was conducted?
06:28Remember, just last week in Nagapatinam, Vijay had himself accepted and agreed
06:33that despite asking for a bigger venue every time,
06:36the police department gives him a constricted and a crammed venue.
06:40So when he was fully aware that the venue that he was given permission for was constricted,
06:45why did he even have to hold an event?
06:47Why couldn't he cancel his Karoor event?
06:49Number two, the event being poorly, very poorly organized.
06:53Because we even had issues from the government who directly stated that for the people who had come here,
06:59there was absolutely no water supply.
07:02You know, the kind of water bottles, we believe they were exhausted
07:04and therefore there was lack of adequate water bottles and water supply to the people who have gathered here,
07:10which contributed all the more to the chaos.
07:13Number four, despite police saying that there was supposed to be volunteer deployment on behalf of TVK,
07:19apart from police personnel, they had also instructed TVK to deploy its own volunteers
07:24in order to help and manage the crowd control.
07:27Why is it that that wasn't done?
07:29Number five, there were no emergency vehicles at the venue.
07:32It was only when there was a tragedy struck, that was when ambulances were called.
07:37There was absolutely no emergency vehicles there.
07:40Number six, Vijay being seven hours late.
07:43On his social media, he had reported that he would come here by around 12.30.
07:47But when did he turn up?
07:48He turned up only at 7.40 p.m.
07:51You know, there's a dirty seven hour delay that we are talking about.
07:55Why is it that it took so long for Vijay to come here from Namakal?
07:59That's the big question.
08:00Why was there a seven hour delay when the permission was given from 3 o'clock to 10 o'clock?
08:05And when he promised to come here at 12, why did he turn up so late?
08:10Next, even in the previous rally, when he specifically mentioned that proper venues are not being given,
08:15there was a venue by us, particularly against TVK, when he was fully aware,
08:19why is it that he still had to come here and conduct an event?
08:23The event had, you know, should have ideally been cancelled.
08:26But Vijay went ahead and still held the venue without taking proper precautionary measures.
08:31We have listed down the lapses, both on behalf of the government and TVK.
08:36Both are equally responsible for the kind of devastating tragedy that has struck Tamil Nadu.
08:4239 lives have been lost.
08:45Absolutely soul-crushing events that's happening here in Karur, in the state of Tamil Nadu.
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