Preventable tragedies at Karur and Bengaluru highlight systemic failures in crowd management, administrative oversight, and safety protocols. Urgent reforms, accountability, and adoption of technology like AI are essential to protect citizens during mass gatherings and political rallies

The images from Karur, of anguished families and the leftover chappals scattered at the TVK rally site, will forever remain etched in my memory. What unfolded at the TVK rally on 27 September was a preventable human tragedy. As a member of the eight-member National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fact-finding committee constituted by our national president J.P. Nadda, I witnessed first-hand the devastating consequences of administrative negligence, intelligence failure, and complete disregard for basic crowd safety protocols. Forty-one innocent lives, including 18 women and 10 children, were lost in what has become the biggest stampede in the history of India’s political rallies. This stampede, which claimed dozens of lives and injured many more, was not just a local calamity; it leaves an indelible national scar that demands sober, systemic answers.

The delegation included my colleagues from different states and parties and both Houses of Parliament; our objective was to seek to know the cause of such a ghastly incident, clarity on how it happened, accountability, and the possible steps to reform the rules of such rallies so that such a tragedy never repeats. When our delegation, led by senior MP Hema Malini and comprising representatives from the BJP, Shiv Sena, and TDP, reached Karur, we expected to find answers. Instead, what we encountered was a wall of bureaucratic silence and disturbing revelations. The district administration’s refusal to engage with our delegation was unprecedented and deeply troubling. In all my years in public service, I have never seen such brazen avoidance of accountability. We travelled to Karur to listen to the injured, the bereaved, the first responders, and officials, and to understand what went wrong.

Our interactions with the bereaved families, the injured victims, and the eyewitnesses painted a horrific picture of systemic failure. One eyewitness told us that the venue, a narrow public road, was merely 19 feet wide, while the actor-turned-politician Vijay’s campaign vehicle itself measured 12 feet, leaving virtually no space for the 30,000-strong crowd to move or escape. The mathematics of disaster were evident, yet permissions were granted without any regard for basic safety norms. It was a site waiting for a disaster of such magnitude. The dynamics........

© The Pioneer