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The two faced organization PETA, which is
earning the wrath of the Tamil people and their brethren who support
them all over the world, continues to raise the bar by coming out with
more self serving statements.
The latest is PETA spokesperson V.
Manilal who has stated that music maestro A. R. Rahman and chess wizard
Viswanathan Anand are wrongly supporting Jallikattu and he and his
organization are planning to meet the legends and change their views
about the ancient sport of cultural significance.
During eviction on Marina Beach, Jallikattu protesters threaten to commit suicide; police use tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Jallikattu protesters attack Ice House police station near Chennai’s Marina Beach and set vehicles on fire. (Photo: DC)
Chennai: The week-long pro-Jallikattu protest at Chennai’s Marina Beach turned violent on Monday after early morning crackdown by the police on scores of protesters, demanding a permanent solution for holding of the bull taming sport.
Police restored to baton-charge and fired tear gas to forcefully disperse demonstrators. The police action at Marina Beach led to clashes and violent protesters pelted stones at Ice House police station and set the police station and several vehicles on fire.
Following an advisory, the crackdown comes on a day when the state Assembly is expected to discuss the matter after the customary Governor's address.
DMK staged a walkout as soon as the Tamil Nadu Governor began his address in the state Assembly on Monday.
DMK Working President MK Stalin criticised the police action on protesters at Marina beach demanding lifting of the ban on Jallikattu and a permanent solution for holding it.
"It is condemnable that instead of holding talks with peaceful protesters, it has been attempted to end protests using police with an authoritarian mindset," Stalin, opposition leader in the state assembly, said in a statement.
He also dubbed the action as "anti-democratic."
A large posse of cops was deployed at Marina. The protesters, mostly students and youth, had not bought the government decision to issue an ordinance for holding Jallikattu, which was done on Saturday, and the bull taming sport held in some parts of the state.
They had vowed to carry on with their protest till a permanent solution was found to ensure the sport was held annually without any hindrance.
Some protesters lined up at the seashore forming a human chain and a group entered the water refusing to heed police requests to disperse. Some others staged a sit-in on the sands while others regrouped in nearby areas, shouting slogans and allegedly throwing stones on policemen.
Police burst teargas shells and reportedly baton-charged to chase away a section of protesters who had regrouped at Triplicane near Marina beach and allegedly started throwing stones at police personnel.
TV visuals showed men and women in khaki physically removing protesters from the beach.
Senior police officials could not be reached. The protesters criticised the police crackdown at the beach.
The police action, however, came following an early morning 'advisory' asking the agitators to end their 'disciplined and peaceful' protest as their "purpose has been fully achieve."
The advisory, released to the media, said that tens of thousands of youth, students and general public had been protesting in Marina since January 17 urging to lift the ban on the conduct of Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu and that it had been "staged in a disciplined and peaceful manner without causing inconvenience to the general public and hindrance to the traffic."
"In fact the participants have been assisting the police throughout and have cooperated well in the maintenance of Law and Order and regulation of traffic.”
"The Government of Tamil Nadu has taken every initiative and has conducted Jallikattu yesterday at various places all over Tamil Nadu to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Tamil Nadu," it said.
"Through an exemplary display of unity and discipline, the purpose of the protest has been fully achieved. Hence the participants are requested to leave the Marina in the same peaceful and disciplined manner and co-operate with the Chennai City Police," it said.
Several protestors were also seen threatening the police, saying they will commit suicide at the beach if forcefully removed from the site.
At Coimbatore, police forcibly evicted the protesters from VOC Park Grounds here where they were agitating for the last six days.
As the appeal made by senior officials to clear the grounds failed, police in large numbers started to bodily lift the protestors and shift them out of the venue.
Women police personnel were seen taking women agitators, some elderly and some with babies in their arms, out of the grounds, despite them appealing with folded hands not to disturb the peaceful agitation.
Even as some protestors were seen leaving the venue voluntarily, police removed nearly 300 protesters from there, police said.
Protesting against the police action, some youths formed a human chain on the main Avanashi chain and police made a 'mild' cane charge to disperse them, police said.
A section of protestors were raising slogans in support of their demand for a permanent act for conducting Jallikattu and against PETA and police, near the Central Jail, some 200 metres from the venue, prompting the police to take into custody nearly 300 people, they said.
Police said they had cleared the ground, venue for the Republic Day function, and it is under control of the district administration and police.
Protests are reportedly continuing in Madurai with demonstrators allegedly throwing stones at police in Alanganallur even as officials are trying to persuade the agitators to disperse.
After the Governor's address to the Assembly today, the government is expected to move a bill to amend the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.
Chennai’s Marina shoreline has a long and storied place in Tamil administrative issues. Subramania Bharati and M.K. Gandhi have tended to political social events here. The advancing test for Jallikattu, however inadequate as to the tremendous names, differentiates emphatically and the various eminent events of political theater that this urban shoreline has seen.
About everyone there is under 30. A far reaching number of the protestors are women. It’s calm. More than it being a contradiction, the air is one of a reasonable. There are strolls, sloganeering, moving, music and fellowship. Women who started from away determined how it had all the earmarks of being okay for women – a deed of some demand in a bleeding edge Indian city.
Around 10 feet over the ground, on the Thiruvalluvar statue, a woman clad in a dim saree was perched. How she climbed there wearing a saree, I have no idea. The peaceful, chose look all over and the politically charged signs she was indicating made about everyone stop and watch. Thiruvalluvar, the man towering over her, would have been satisfied.
An energetic, unassuming and humble understudy named Owais was cleaning the garbage diverse protestors were leaving. The garbage mixed with grime and it looked exceptionally enormous. I offered help. By then I comprehended what a staggering a task it was and moved along. Nevertheless, he was settled. He had no gloves however kept running about with essentially his hands and a gunny sack. His sentiment metro commitment will put by far most of us to disrespect.
The other detectable point about the test was the essential number of Muslims. While the Hindutva separation has been endeavoring to portray Jallikattu as a Hindu issue through electronic systems administration media, these energetic Muslims reminded everyone this was a Tamil issue.
There were amplifies where protestors were flooding onto Beach Road and made improvement troublesome. Young volunteers, a huge part of them near 20 years old, confined a human attach to segregate the difference region from moving action. A safeguard vehicle came and volunteers working with the police somehow made sense of how to get it through by getting a sea of people to part. The police, incredibly, were massively valuable to both the protestors and the overall public free to move around at will.
The part of the police in these difficulties is a dismissed and ignored perspective. Challenges world over succeed when the security gadget of the state is either for the protestors or if nothing else decides to not unleash violence in solitude citizenry. Over the top cases of this fuse triumphs like Tahrir Square or even the French Revolution. Syria is an instance of what happens when the state shoots down protestors. Tamil Nadu is not any of those remarkable cases yet rather that the police routinely carried selfies with protestors and were generally getting a charge out of the celebration atmosphere themselves is a profitable demonstrate recollect. Most police work drive on commitment, it showed up, were generally enduring of the cause.
We won’t change! We won’t change! We will not stop until we tame the bull.
“Tamilan endru solla da, thalai nimirthu nilla da!”
Say you are a Tamilian, stand with your head held high!
At noon in Chennai, the chants of young jallikattu supporters on Marina beach were growing stronger. Thousands of people had gathered along the beach to protest against the Supreme Court’s decision last January to ban the Tamil bull-taming sport jallikattu.
The sport is traditionally practiced around the Pongal festival, which was celebrated last week.
Along a 3 km stretch of beach, college students, school students and office-goers waved placards and posters supporting the sport. The protest had gathered momentum on Tuesday evening, and many had stayed overnight on the beach, refusing to move until the ban was revoked. Even though it was more than 36 hours since the protest began, hundreds were continuing to throng at the beach.
“Only now the protest is gathering momentum,” said V Balaji, a college student.
The clamour in support of the sport has been growing louder across the state over the past month. The Supreme Court has been hearing several petitions on the sport since it was banned on 2014. After upholding the ban last January, the Supreme Court bench in November referred to jallikattu as a “gladiator-type sport” and said that it was a Constitutional obligation to show compassion to animals.
As sporadic protests erupted in parts of the Tamil Nadu, several political leaders made promises to the public that jallikattu could be conducted during Pongal 2017. Last week, Chief Minsiter O Panneerselvam wrote a letter to Modi urging the centre to quickly pass an ordinance to allow jallikattu bouts to be organised. But the Supreme Court refused to pass a judgement before Pongal.
Ignoring the ban, jallikattu bouts were reportedly organised in several villages near Madurai and Sivaganga towns in Tamil Nadu. In Alanganallur near Madurai, more than 500 supporters were detained by the police.
On Wednesday, supporters at Marina beach were calling out to political leaders demanding that their promises be fulfilled. They shouted slogans naming chief minister Panneerselvam and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief N Sasikala, who is also known as Chinamma or Little Mother.
“Ringa ringa roses, enga ponaan OPS?”
Where did O Paneerselvam go?
“Chinamma Chinamma, OPS enga ma?”
Chinamma, where is OPS
“Vyavasayi kana la kaneer, enga ponaan Panneer?”
Farmers have tears in their eyes, where did Paneerselvam go?
College students gathered at the protest.
Social media mobilisation
Around midday, busloads of students were constantly pouring into Kamarajar Salai, the road along Marina Beach, joining the chorus of slogans supporting jallikattu.
“We got messages from different groups on WhatsApp and Facebook,” said L Shruthi, a student of Ambedkar Law College. “We were told that if all college students bunk class and gather here, the national media will come.”
M Manimaran, a third-year law student, had been at the Marina beach since Tuesday morning, tossing bottles of water and food packets to all those gathered. A first-generation high-school graduate, Manimaran’s family was dependent on agriculture until his father moved to the city when Manimaran was a child. But he often visited his grandparents’ home in their native village of Ramanathapuram in Sivaganga district, where jallikattu was practiced until three years ago. “My father and grandfather have all played jallikattu in their youth. We want to preserve that tradition,” he said.
Manimaran had been at the beach since Tuesday morning. “My father too encouraged me to come here and protest,” he said.
A few hundred people had been protesting on the beach since Sunday, after jallikattu supporters in Madurai district had been detained by the police, said Manimaran. As word about the demonstrations spread on social media, thousands more joined in.
On Tuesday, the street lights along an entire section of the footpath where the protestors stood were switched off. “The police used that tactic hoping that we would all clear off,” said Manimaran. “But instead it triggered off a lot more anger. People started waving their phone torches in protest.”
Credit: Marina Beach/Facebook
‘Ban PETA’
Along with the slogans protesting against the jallikattu ban were calls to ban the NGO People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, the animal welfare organisation that had expressed its support for the court-imposed restriction on the sport.
According to V Balaji, a student of Alpha Arts and Science College, the organisation did not understand the nuances of the sport. “Farmers spend so much of their money to rear their cattle,” he said. “Why would they want to hurt them?”
Balaji said that jallikattu itself had many rules that prevented the animals from suffering harm. He said that a participant in the sport could be disqualified if more than one person caught the neck of the bull or the hump.
“Everybody here knows that big multinational dairy companies are backing PETA,” said V Balaji. “They want to destroy our native breed of cattle and bring in jersey cows.”
The view that western corporations were behind the ban was shared by several other at the rally.
“If we don’t conduct jallikattu, the purpose of breeding bulls will be lost,” said R Palani, an IT employee. “Foreign MNCs want us to consume the milk provided by foreign varieties of cattle. This kind of milk can gave us diabetes and even cancer. Then they want to sell us their medicine for cure. That is the truth.”
Thousands have been protesting at the Marina Beach in Chennai from Tuesday onward against a court ban on Jallikattu, the controversial bull-taming sport played during the Pongal festival. The repeated neglect of Tamil identity is the rallying point for Jallikkattu protests.
Since the issue has snowballed into a controversy, prominent National figures from the state have come out open in support for the sport.
Oscar winning musician AR Rahman is the latest one to join the debate. He said that he will go on fast on Friday to support the spirit of Tamil Nadu. He said this in a tweet.
Chess champion Viswanathan Anand has also come with the support for the protest. He said "My state rises again in unison, in peace. Proud to be a #tamizhanda. Genext here are modern yet culturally rooted"
Many Tamil superstars including Rajnikanth, Kamal Hassan, Dhanush, Surya, Vishal, Sivakarthikeyan, Cricket Ravichandran Ashwin and scores others have lending their support for the Jallikkattu.
Hours after the Supreme Court rejected a plea inviting its interference to allow Jallikattu during this Pongal, protests erupted across Tamil Nadu. The police had to resort to lathicharge to control the situation at several places. More than two dozen people were arrested for illegally holding Jallikattu in Cuddalore town.
The
chorus in support of the sport grew with more sections of people,
including students, joining protests in different parts of the state,
including in places where it is not so popular.
Students of
state-run Anna University and Dr Ambedkar Law University took to the
streets in support for Jallikattu. While Anna varsity students staged a
sit-in protest, law students took out a rally here. Similar
demonstrations were held by students in various places, including
Vellore, Pudukottai and Tirupur.
A students’ protest in Madurai
turned violent when police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse them.
The agitators said it was a peaceful protest and they were on their way
to the collector's office to submit a letter in support of the
Jallikattu when police stopped them.
About 10,000 people converged at a ground in Coimbatore in
support of Jallikattu, while protests were staged in Sivaganga,
Dindigul, Pudukottai and Salem districts.
Both the ruling AIADMK
and Opposition DMK came out with statements portraying the importance of
Jallikattu to Tamil culture, and vowed to push the Centre in this
regard.
The bull taming sport Jallikattu, organised to celebrate
Pongal festival, has not been held in Tamil Nadu for the last two years.
It was first banned in May 2014 by the apex court. In 2016 though the
Centre permitted the event, the court stepped in and stayed it. Animal
rights groups oppose the sport on the grounds of cruelty to animals.
DMK
working president, MK Stalin, announced on Thursday that his party
would hold protests in every district of the state on Friday to “force
the Centre to allow the sport”. AIADMK spokesperson C Saraswati dubbed
the apex court decision as “unfortunate,” and said the state government
would do everything in its power to ensure that the event is held.
Stalin
also participated in a demonstration held by college students here
seeking permission for jallikattu. “I extended support for the agitation
by participating in their protest. It is welcome that students are
holding protests for Jallikattu,” he said.
He said only such
solidarity and participation by students “guarded our mother tongue”, in
an apparent reference to the large scale anti-Hindi protests by
students in 1960’s. “Similarly, I believe that students’ agitations will
protect jallikattu, the cultural symbol of the Tamil people,” Stalin
said.
Functionaries of Naam Tamizhar Katchi conducted Jallikattu in
Cuddalore near the Thiruvanthipuram Devanatha Swamy Temple premises and
police arrested 28 people for violating the ban.
Film
personalities including actor Sathyaraj, filmmaker Karu Pazhaniappan
participated in a stir here pledging support for Jallikattu. Actor Simbu
held a silent protest.
In Coimbatore, people from different
spheres of life, cutting across caste, linguistic and political
barriers, took part in the protest at the sprawling CODISSIA grounds
under the banner of “Voice for Jallikattu”.
The protests over
Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu had its echo in the neighbouring union
territory of Puducherry where volunteers of various youth outfits staged
a human chain agitation supporting the bull taming sport on the ground
that it was part of the time-honoured tradition of the Tamils.
The
Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea seeking its intervention to
lift the ban on Jallikattu before Saturday saying it is “unfair to ask
bench to pass an order” while the draft of the judgment has been
prepared.
Thousands of angry young people flocked to the streets on Wednesday in southern India to protest a three-year-old ban on an ancient bull-taming festival that animal rights activists say is cruel.
In a bitter clash that pits cultural traditions against the campaign for animal rights, the annual harvest-related bull-taming sport called Jallikattu has sharply divided Indians in the past week.
The popular ritual traditionally takes places in villages of the southern state of Tamil Nadu in January. But this is the third year that the event has been banned, and many people are now calling for India's Supreme Court to overturn the prohibition.
On the day of the harvest festival, villages across the state typically conduct competitions where the bulls are tied and kept in an excitable state until doors are opened. As the bulls run out, participants chase them and try to tame them by holding on to their humps for as long as they can. This year, the festival was held on Saturday - most villages complied with the bull-taming ban, but a few defied it.
For the last two days, tens of thousands of protesters have lined up along the roads, public squares and beaches across the state to show their support for the bull-taming festival. Some men even buried themselves neck-deep in beach sands to protest. Students skipped classes in schools and colleges to join the crowds. Several Tamil movie actors and directors have also called for Jallikattu to be revived.
"Jallikattu is our tradition, it is our identity. We will not allow anyone to play with our emotions," said Manoj Kumar, a college student and protester, said in a phone interview from Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu.
The Times of India newspaper called it a "Tamil Nadu version of the Arab Spring."
"These bulls are like children in our families, we do not torture them. This is how we play with them," said C. R. Lakshmi, the spokeswoman for All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the party that is in power in Tamil Nadu. "This festival goes back thousands of years, and this is an integral part of our harvest festival. Women in the ancient tales would say that they would only marry the men who can tame the bulls. Villagers now say there has been a drought in the state because of the ban on Jallikattu."
The Supreme Court is now considering a number of appeals against the ban by the state officials. Animal welfare groups like the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are supporting the ban, saying that the animals are tortured to heighten the excitement of the spectator sport. The court's verdict is expected soon.
"International groups like PETA do not understand Indian culture. Why don't they first try to ban bull racing in Spain?" Lakshmi added. (PETA does advocate against bull fights and bull runs around the world.)
India's law against cruelty to animals lists bull fighting, dog fighting, bull racing and other uses of some animals in performances. In 2011, India's environment ministry banned the use of bulls in performances across India. In 2014, the Supreme Court said that spectacles like Jallikattu violate the law.
Jallikattu advocates say the sport must be regulated instead of being banned completely.
But animal rights activists say that people had violated many of the regulations stipulated by the court before 2014 and argue that the sport is inherently violent. PETA members have submitted films that showed chili powder being inserted into the nostrils of the bulls, their tails twisted and bitten by participants, and bulls being prodded with sticks and fed with suspected alcohol.
Hundreds of people have been injured and some killed during the sport in recent years.
Many protesters called for a ban on PETA. One prominent politician in Chennai said last week that PETA is an "anti-national" group.
Manilal Valliyate, the Indian director of PETA, said that the country's law "makes it the mandate of every Indian citizen to have compassion for animals. To stand for kindness is patriotic, to stand for cruelty is un-Indian." He added that PETA does not make laws, but is "a law-abiding body," and targeting it is "cheap and ineffective."
But Valliyate said, "to prevent cruelty to bulls, which is inherent in Jallikattu, ban is the proper, sensible, commonsensical solution."
Another PETA statement said that the purpose of the annual harvest festival is "to thank the nature and celebrate life, something that can't be achieved by tormenting bulls and causing human and bull injuries and deaths."
PETA members have been getting threatening calls and emails from protesters, Valliyate said.
"The spontaneous uproar against the ban shows that people are upset with the court and the national government in Delhi, which they say is trying to portray them as a bunch of villains," said Nityanand Jayaraman, an environmental activist in Chennai. "There are better ways of addressing such issues without banning them."
Officials in Tamil Nadu have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring an amendment to animal welfare law in the next session of the national parliament, and introduce an ordinance for "removing the legal impediments" to the sport.
But animal welfare activists wore the mask of bulls this week and protested the move. They held placards in New Delhi this week that said "Please Mr Modi: Stay Strong. Don't Weaken Bull Protection Laws."
What started out as a show of solidarity with protesters in Alanganallur in Madurai district became a full-blown show of strength of jallikattu supporters across Tamil Nadu on Wednesday with youngsters, mostly college students, taking the lead.
If Alanganallur was the epicentre of the pro-jallikattu protests on Monday and Tuesday, the focus gradually turned to the Marina Beach in Chennai by Tuesday night with protesters who assembled there earlier in the day refusing to leave the venue. Their protest continued overnight, and they stayed put even when streetlights were switched off.
By Wednesday afternoon, Marina Beach became a sea of protesters with people joining the crowd minute by minute. Several college students bunked classes to be at the protest venue. The protesters refused to disperse saying they would leave only if chief minister O Panneerselvam gave them an audience and ensured the conduct of jallikattu.
However, Panneerselvam stayed away from Marina Beach. He avoided taking the Kamarajar Salai when he went to Secretariat in the morning, in a bid to avoid running into the agitated crowd. Instead, he took the Anna Salai route. The chief minister held talks with senior police officials who informed him about the gravity of the situation.
In the evening, Panneerselvam announced that he would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday to persuade him to promulgate an ordinance for the conduct of the traditional bull-taming sport.
Slogans were raised against People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Modi, Panneerselvam, AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikalaa and almost anyone the protesters perceived as anti-Tamil during the course of the day.
Traffic blocks and diversions were seen on several roads in Chennai throughout the day. Kamarajar Salai that goes via Marina Beach and Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR), where lots of educational institutions and IT parks are situated, were the worst affected roads.
Traffic OMR when the students of the Sathyabama University staged a pro-jallikattu protest. Later in the day, techies also held protests on the OMR.
Meanwhile, protest continued for the third day at Alanganallur in Madurai district. In Madurai city, youngsters staged a protest on Tamukkam grounds on Wednesday morning. In Kovilpatti in Tuticorin district, police arrested several protesters who attempted to take out a rally against PETA.
A student suffered injuries when he jumped off a pole during a protest at Vaniyambadi in Vellore district. K Suresh, a second year student of Priyadharshini Polytechnic College, climbed on an electric pole in front of the college around 1pm. Before jumping off the pole, he shouted slogans against PETA and demanded that the central government take steps to lift the ban on jallikattu.
He was rushed to Government Hospital in Vaniyambadi. The doctors examined him and told his friends that he sustained fractures on his right leg and left hand. He was referred to Government Vellore Medical College Hospital.
Students boycotted classes and staged protests in Trichy, Coimbatore, Salem, Krishnagiri and other parts of the state.
