MK Stalin expressed his sadness at the death of 13-year-old Dinesh by electrocution while placing party flag and ordered the cadres to stop the practice immediately. It is unclear whether action is being taken against cadres, agency.
The chief minister, MK Stalin, reacted to the death of 13-year-old Dinesh while placing DMK flags in Villupuram. “I am saddened to learn that, despite repeated and firm orders to stop the culture of the flag, it continues in many places. Party cadres must accept my order and stop this practice immediately, he said in a tweet posted on Monday, August 23rd. Stalin further added that grieving parents had his support.
As TNM had reported, Dinesh, a 13-year-old boy, was electrocuted on Friday, August 20, in Rahim Layout, Villupuram, while preparing DMK flags for a party leader attending a wedding in the neighborhood. On the morning of the wedding, the young man who was studying in the 9th standard was at home due to the closure and devoted himself to erecting flags for the occasion. As Minister K Ponmudy attended, local DMK cadres hired a small agency to decorate the road near the Villupuram Mambalapattu road wedding hall for their arrival. A live electric cable fell on Dinesh as he tried to put up a party flag and killed him. Although DMK leadership has said it has banned the erection of cut-outs and flags, many party grounds and even leaders continue to do so. In addition, the cadres did not take any police or municipal permission to put up the flags.
It is still unclear whether police action has been taken against the cadres or the private agency that Dinesh hired. It should be remembered that after the death of R Subashree in 2019, a 23-year-old software engineer who fell from an illegal AIADMK repository, the DMK had promised to eradicate popular flag culture in the state when it came to power.