9 months after that, Large congestion that claimed 41 lives On the marketing campaign path, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay returned to Karur on Friday with a authorities mandate for the households of the victims, a promise to construct a memorial, and a speech that was half memorial, half political attraction, half stand-up efficiency.
If his parliamentary speeches had been primarily restrained, controlling and restrained, Karur’s speech was unmistakably the previous Vijay. Colloquial and conversational, it was typically humorous even because it revisited the darkest chapters of his political life. “Regardless of how excessive an individual rises in life, there are all the time scars of their hearts that they will always remember,” he started. “For me, the deepest ache, the deepest wound is the Karur incident.”
Return to Stampede
In his speech, Mr. Vijay reconstructed the occasions main as much as the September 2025 tragedy and repeatedly questioned the position of the police. Recalling that Perambalur police had earlier requested him to not enter the realm as the gang was bigger than anticipated, he requested why Karur police had not performed the identical.
“Could not the Karur police have warned us too? In the event that they needed, they might have canceled that assembly… They did not even must ask us.” As an alternative, “the police themselves escorted us from the freeway to the venue,” he mentioned. “There was a whole lot of drama behind it,” he mentioned. “I believed in them. I had full belief in them.”
He repeatedly instructed that the tragedy was the results of a deliberate political determination reasonably than a mere administrative failure, however stopped wanting immediately naming these accountable. “Who’s answerable for all this? Who directed all this? Who was directing all this and making use of stress?”
Declare that there isn’t a corruption
The emotional middle of the speech was not when discussing politics, however when describing the youngsters who died. “These little youngsters… smile at their mom and say, ‘Amma, Vijay mama’. Run to the TV display screen, contact and kiss them. We have now misplaced these treasured youngsters. I’ve misplaced a sister, a brother, a member of the family… And also you make enjoyable of me? Put the blame on me?”
Many within the viewers remained silent through the memory, however responded with thunderous applause. The speech additionally spoke of a full-fledged political counterattack.
Focusing on the DMK, Mr. Vijay accused the earlier authorities of institutionalized corruption and claimed that his authorities had began dismantling entrenched practices inside authorities workplaces. “What’s your spotlight comedy?” he requested earlier than getting into the afternoon’s shiny hours. “I simply mentioned ‘occasion funds’. I did not say which occasion… As quickly as I mentioned ‘occasion funds’, look… everybody began operating.”
Evaluating his response when somebody yelled, “My father is not within the cabinet” with out being requested, Vijay laughed and mentioned, “Why would you expose your self? I can not imagine their antics. It is completely hilarious.” The group responded with the loudest cheers.
The Prime Minister then made maybe the boldest administrative declare of his tenure. “Go to any authorities workplace proper now,” he declared. “There’s not a single rupee in bribes… There’s not a single rupee in corruption. That is how the work goes. Tick-tock…tock-tock…tick-tock.”
He mentioned one senior citizen instructed him that authorities officers ask staff to take a seat respectfully as a substitute of creating them go from one workplace to a different. “Persons are respiratory an enormous sigh of reduction,” he mentioned.
The remarks amounted to the federal government’s strongest public assertion but that corruption throughout the forms had been considerably curbed in lower than two months after taking workplace. Mr. Vijay additionally appealed to the individuals themselves to affix the marketing campaign. “If somebody asks you for a bribe, inform them firmly, ‘I can not give bribes.’ I’m right here with you…and if somebody nonetheless tries to extort you, say firmly, ‘That is our son…that is our brother…that is our Vijay. That is Vijay’s authorities.'”
Assault on the Opposition: “Forces of Evil vs. Depleted Forces”
The speech blended welfare bulletins with characteristically theatrical hyperbole. He spoke in regards to the authorities’s proposed “Timerman Ring Plan,” and contrasted his administration with the earlier administration. “Not like this evil power, we aren’t pretend maternal uncles.” “We’re actual timermen…actual timermen…actual, actual timermen.”
He repeatedly referred to the DMK as “this evil power” and the AIADMK as “that ineffective power”, reviving election language acquainted to TVK supporters. At a number of factors, Mr. Vijay scoffed at criticism that he remained silent on political points.
“They preserve saying, ‘Prime Minister, open your mouth and communicate!’ Effectively… when your Prime Minister spoke, he stabbed you straight by the guts, did not he?” he mentioned.
He joked that he may ask the Speaker to “lock all of the doorways” earlier than giving his subsequent speech in Parliament, as opposition members flee each time he speaks.
“I spoke for simply 5 minutes and so they began making kotu parotta from kolathur,” he joked, referring to the constituency the place he defeated former chief minister MK Stalin.
The speech grew to become extra playful as he attacked corruption investigations. Mr. Vijay claimed that a number of individuals related to the earlier authorities had been escaping surveillance, saying one of many businessmen from Karur was “operating…operating…operating…” earlier than turning to a different political opponent. “Now, after I say ‘abroad’, do not assume I am speaking about Stalin,” he added. “I’ve all the time had a particular affection for Stalin. It is not him.” The group erupted. “I am speaking about one other gentleman who went to Singapore for a medical checkup.”
Maybe probably the most politically important announcement got here close to the top.
Declaring that future generations ought to bear in mind the Karur tragedy and what he described because the “political conspiracy” behind it, Mr. Vijay introduced that TVK would construct a memorial in Karur. “Future generations should know this… so nobody will consider beginning new political intrigues.”
The prime minister additionally dismissed allegations that the ruling occasion is plotting a defection from the opposition occasion. “We have now damaged the tradition of paying money to vote throughout elections,” he mentioned. “If we will do it throughout elections, why do we’d like horse buying and selling, donkey buying and selling, camel buying and selling and all these discount offers now?” he mentioned in response to allegations that the occasion was poaching AIADMK MLAs.
Concluding his speech, Mr. Vijay appealed to voters to provide what he referred to as a “everlasting reply” to the DMK within the upcoming by-elections. “Victory… Victory… Victory is for certain.”
The speech was in some ways just like the election speech that helped propel TVK from a brand new political experiment to the state’s ruling occasion. One other factor has additionally change into clear. In latest weeks, Mr. Vijay has primarily spoken out by parliamentary debates, authorities orders and coverage bulletins. In Karur, AIADMK MLA MR Vijayabaskar returns to the language of film audiences and marketing campaign halls with a mixture of disappointment, irony, humor and ethical conviction forward of the upcoming polls within the state, together with Karur, the place he just lately resigned as MLA and joined TVK.
