Vijay claims political vendetta over stampede, DMK hits back

Breaking his silence through a video message three days after a stampede at his political rally caused 41 deaths, actor and politician Vijay of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) hinted darkly ata conspiracy and targeted Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin even as he glossed over his own immediate exit from the venue and silence for three days.

- Divya Chandrababu

Hours after the clip was released, the Tamil Nadu government held a press conference with the secretaries of the home and health department and senior police officers rebutting Vijay's allegations.

The essence of Vijay's allegations in a 4 minute 45 second long clip was an insinuation that the state's ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) sabotaged his rally. Hinting at a theory that has been aired by his party and denied by the DMK, he asked why the stampede happened in Karur, and why his other rallies had passed without any incidents. TVK leaders have alleged that DMK’s Karur strongman and former minister Senthil Balaji orchestrated the stampede.

“We went to at least five districts for our campaign, and no such incident took place in any of those places. How is it that this incident happened only in Karur? The public knows the truth, they are seeing everything,” Vijay said.

In response, the state government said that what happened in Karur was not isolated since several people attending other rallies led by Vijay had been hospitalised.

Tamil Nadu’s five high ranking bureaucrats and cops — revenue secretary P Amudha, home secretary Dheeraj Kumar, health secretary P Senthilkumar, DGP G Venkataraman and ADGP (law and order) Davidson Devasirvatham — defended the measures the state had taken before and in the aftermath of the stampede during a media briefing at the state secretariat.