Garlands For Vijay’s Campaign Vehicles, But No Candles For 41 Dead?

Garlands For Vijay’s Campaign Vehicles, But No Candles For 41 Dead? This year’s Ayudha Pooja in Tamil Nadu was overcast by the heart -rending death toll of 41 lives, including a 2-year old child and a 60 year’s elder at Karur, when the grandstanding campaign presence of TVK Vijay turned into a massive stampede. The country was still reading about this serious death toll and the Tamilian craze to catch a glimpse of a film star. The usual claims of “heart broken”, “I am too numb to process this” and the blame game of who or what caused the human tragedy, flew thick and fast. But wait, who said the Ayudha Pooja celebrations had been cancelled, so this party could pay homage to the dead, even light candles (Vijay is of the Christian faith and even candle were not lit to mourn the dead) . Instead, the pictures of his campaign vehicles fully decorated with Banana saplings and garlands went viral, but not a word of condolence, even as a one man commission of retired Judge Aruna Jagadeesan had been set up to probe the tragedy. Are campaign vehicles and their sanctity more important than human lives? Time and again such death tolls and heart wrenching tragedies happen. Soon, more campaigns and political aspirant pied-pipers will spring up …the star struck public will be wooed to come in large numbers, supplicants and suppliants, blind faith and mindless following just ripe for more such disasters.