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Slugfest after TN boy dies while putting up DMK flag
He was rushed to a local government hospital but died before his family reached him. Following a post mortem, the boy’s body was handed over to his mother.
The death of a 13-year-old boy due to electrocution while helping DMK cadre erect banners in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district has led to a political furore in the state, with the AIADMK and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) asking chief minister M K Stalin to take action against those responsible.
The deceased boy, Dinesh of class 9, was helping party workers decorate a road to welcome higher education minister K Ponmudy for a marriage function in Villupuram. A live wire fell on the boy. The minister has announced a compensation of ₹1.5 lakhs to the boy’s family. Villupuram police said that the incident happened on Friday. “An FIR has been filed two days ago,” an official said without going into details. However, the incident came to light only on Sunday.
He was rushed to a local government hospital but died before his family reached him. Following a post mortem, the boy’s body was handed over to his mother. The image of the mother crying over her child’s white clothed wrapped body has been circulating on social media.
Stalin on Monday urged the party cadre to end the practice of erecting banners and cutouts for leaders, which is a widespread political culture in Tamil Nadu. The DMK has been instructing its cadres not to erect banners and flags for party events. “This causes disturbance to the public and sometimes it threatens life and ends up tragically,” Stalin said in a statement expressing shock over the boy’s death.
The opposition parties recalled an incident from two years ago when a 23-year-old woman Subshshree died after an AIADMK banner fell on her in Chennai, which triggered a massive outrage. BJP spokesperson in Tamil Nadu Narayanan Thirupathy recalled that when the young woman died, Stalin, then in the opposition, had asked how many more lives will be lost to the power-hungry and anarchist rule of the AIADMK. “Giving compensation will not give the family any consolation. The culprits have to be arrested immediately,” said Thirupathy. The BJP alliance, led by the AIADMK, said that all lives are equal no matter which party is in power. “Why shouldn’t they be prosecuted under The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act,” said AIADMK spokesperson D Jayakumar.
Several activists in the state have rallied against erecting illegal poles and banners. “Only if swift action is taken against wrongdoers can this be prevented in the future. The person who erected the pole and the contractor who hired the boy to tie up the flag must be prosecuted,” said Jayaram Venkatesan, convener of anti-corruption NGO Arappor Iyakkam that has been fighting against illegal banners.
