Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman went to Karur on Monday to comfort families who lost loved ones in the horrific stampede at actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) event on Saturday night.
Sitharaman, who was there on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union government, visited the scene of the disaster in Velayuthampalayam and met with the injured in hospitals. She said that the PM National Relief Fund (PMNRF) will give each grieving family ₹2 lakh, but the district administration needs to send in their bank information first.
She said the incident was “unimaginably painful” and stressed the need to make safety rules stronger and set clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for such events. She didn’t talk about politics at all, saying that her only reason for coming was to deliver the Prime Minister’s message.
M.K. Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, went to the site soon after the event and claimed that the Justice Aruna Jagadeesan Commission’s findings would lead to new laws for political gatherings. Edappadi K. Palaniswami, the General Secretary of the AIADMK, also sent his sympathies and stressed the need for better crowd control.
Vijay, who was clearly upset, called the killings “heart-wrenching” and said that each family of the dead will get ₹20 lakh and each injured person would get ₹2 lakh. There was a stampede as many rushed to see him after his speech, which caused panic and pandemonium. More than 60 people were hurt, some of them quite badly, which led to more discussion about safety at political gatherings in Tamil Nadu.