By now newspapers have written enough, TV channels have shown more than enough, people have seen more than they wanted to see about the demise of Rajkumar and the violent funeral that followed. The mayhem that accompanied the procession and funeral were really ugly, unfortunate and unpardonable. Sure, this is not the first time we have seen processions marred with violence and lathi charges and this won't be the last. So I won't write too much about it.
In the history of Karnataka, I don't think any person has ever enjoyed such a great fan following. Sure, political leaders have managed to rope in a large gathering to listen to their speeches, devotees have gathered in large numbers to listen to their spiritual leader. However, nobody, neither the great political leaders, nor the spiritual Gurus, not even kings have ever managed to build such a great fan following across all economic and social levels of a society. This is the kind of reverence politicians dream about achieving all their lives. If my understanding is right, Rajkumar was the best example of people uniting around a man based just on Kannada and nothing else. Rajkumar is great for having achieved such an iconic stature. If you are a non-Kannadiga and not too knowledgeable about Karnataka, you must be wondering whether Kannadigas are going to go on a rampage like this every time one of their film stars dies. Rest assured, anything quite like this and this spontaneous won't happen ever again. Nobody else has such a pull on the society.
The events at Rajkumar's death was surely going to be unprecedented. But what really happened was far beyond the expectation of the state machinery. How can the police control the mobs, when some lunatics think "I was unable to see Annavru's body. Obviously, it is the fault of that big BMTC bus. Let me go and smash up it's windshield and light it up as a revenge"
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