Tamil Maanila Congress president G.K. Vasan on Saturday demanded the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government to pass an ordinance to enable the conduct of jallikattu during Pongal festival this month.
Addressing a demonstration staged by his party with a demand to lift the ban on the bull-taking sport, he blamed the Central government for cheating Tamil people with repeated assurances that the sport will be conducted this year. “However, they did not take any constructive steps to lift the ban. When they could overcome the Supreme Court’s order on setting up Cauvery Water Management Board, why cannot they show a similar interest in lifting the ban on jallikattu ?” he questioned.
He also blamed the Tamil Nadu government for failing to convene an all-party meeting to unanimously fight for the important issues of the State such as jallikattu and Cauvery water.
TMC leaders B.S. Gnanadesikan and N.S.V. Chitthan also spoke at the function. Mr. Gnanadesikan said his party earnestly wanted the ban to be lifted, unlike many other political parties that were staging protests for the sake of conducting one.
Stating that there were only instances of the participating men getting injured in jallikattu , Mr. Chitthan said that there were no basis for the argument that bulls got injured while taming .
Drought issue
Later, speaking to a section of the media, Mr. Vasan demanded swift action by the State and Central governments to address the drought situation in Tamil Nadu by declaring the State as drought-hit. “The deaths of farmers should not be trivialised,” he said.
He also urged the State government to come up with mitigation plans such as sinking more borewells and addressing drinking water shortage.
