When 50 people died in two Sunday stampedes in Chennai

The tragic crowd crush that claimed 41 lives at actor-politician Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) rally in Karur last weekend is the worst such incident at a political gathering in Tamil Nadu. However, similar tragedies have also occurred at State-managed events. Among the most infamous was the 1992 stampede during the Mahamaham festival in Kumbakonam. That stampede was widely believed to have been triggered during a ritual attended by then Chief Minister Jayalalitha (as she spelled her name at the time) and her close aide Sasikala Natarajan (as she was then known).

Equally grim were the deaths of 50 people in two stampedes, both of which occurred on Sundays, in Chennai, 20 years ago, illustrating how lessons in crowd management are rarely learned.

In the winter of 2005, large parts of Chennai had, for the first time in several decades, been submerged following heavy overnight rains and floods. As the city limped back to normalcy, the Jayalalithaa government had announced distribution of relief for the affected.

Around 4.30 am on November 6, 2005, six women waiting at the Government Dr. Ambedkar Arts College in north Chennai’s Vyasarpadi, a designated relief distribution centre, were killed in a stampede, and several others were injured. “Hundreds of residents who were waiting with relief tokens collected from ration shops tried to rush into the premises to receive the relief package announced by the government. The distribution was to start at 9 a.m. While the injured admitted to Stanley Hospital say that it was the police who opened the gate, the police said that the crowds forced open the gate,” a report in The Hindu said. The toll in the incident later went up to seven.

Jayalalithaa attributed the rush to “rumours spread by mischief-makers who had stated that relief was being distributed at 4.30 a.m and that people should rush to get them.”

The second tragedy

The tragedy repeated itself on December 19 that year on a much larger scale. As many as 42 people were trampled to death and 37 seriously injured in a stampede at a flood relief centre in south Chennai. This incident also took place in the early hours.

“More than 4,000 people had gathered at the centre, Arignar Anna School in MGR Nagar, where tokens for grant of relief were to be given to ration card holders attached to three Public Distribution System shops. The tragedy occurred around 4 a.m. as people pushed at the gate of the school in the belief that distribution of tokens was about to begin,” reported The Hindu. It emerged people had started queuing up from the previous night, though the token distribution was to take place only at 9 a.m. on Sunday.

It defied understanding as to how the night patrol police had failed to notice people lining up outside the school. Ironically, when a police patrol vehicle came to the school at 4 a.m., those at the tail end of the queue thought the staff authorised to distribute tokens had arrived and surged towards the gate. “In the melee, the gate was forced open,” said the report.

Blame game

The Opposition parties demanded Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s resignation. The Democratic Progressive Alliance, led by DMK president M. Karuanidhi, charged the government with not taking precautionary measures despite the stampede at Vyasarpadi the previous month.

However, Jayalalithaa was on the defensive. She said: “Since the State government has been performing very efficiently and right from the President and the Prime Minister everyone has complimented it for the efficient manner in which we implement the relief measures, it looks as though some culprits and miscreants, who want to bring a bad name to the government and tarnish its image, have been deliberately spreading such rumours [about the timing of relief distribution].”

Soon, the police arrested Dhanasekaran, the local DMK councillor for spreading misinformation that led to the assembly of the gathering and the stampede. The police said it investigated a complaint by the Revenue Inspector Munisami and it revealed Mr. Dhanasekaran and others spread rumours and were responsible for the tragedy. “A senior police officer said early on Sunday, Mr. Dhanasekaran, along with a few others, went round the streets in MGR Nagar announcing that Sunday was the last day for receiving flood relief tokens and that the distribution would start at 5 a.m. Believing him, a crowd began to gather in front of the distribution centre. A hunt was on for Senthil and a few others,” according to The Hindu report. The Opposition criticised the police action.

Meanwhile, Jayalalithaa set up a Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice A. Raman, a former judge of the Madras High Court, to ascertain the cause of the tragedy. The government also replaced the Chennai Collector S. Chandramohan with N. Muruganandam (now Chief Secretary).

While Mr. Vijay had left Karur without meeting the victims who died at his rally, Jayalalithaa, despite the strong criticism against the government, had rushed to the Royapettah Government Hospital and offered solace to the grieving relatives and the injured.