With political parties turning the ban on jallikattu into a political issue, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Tamil Nadu unit president Tamilisai Soundararajan said here on Monday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi understands the emotional value the Tamils attach to the sport .
A favourable decision would be taken on the issue before the Pongal .
Scoring a political point, she said Union Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar had told her, “you can tell the youth of Tamil Nadu that jallikattu will happen.’
“Despite enormous pressure from the entire civil society, Mr. Javadekar has made efforts over the last one and a half years to make sure that jallikattu takes place because it is the traditional sport of the Tamils. Mr. Modi has also understood how emotionally people are attached to this,” she said. Ms. Soundarrajan took a dig at Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president EVKS Elangovan who had raised a question on why it had taken the BJP so long to ensure that jallikattu takes place. “The Congress was in power for 10 years and jallikattu was embroiled in a controversy since 2008. What steps were taken by the Congress government to clear these barriers,” Ms. Soundarrajan asked. Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Scale Industries Kalraj Mishra would be visiting Chennai on January 2 and 3 to speak to industrialists affected by the recent floods, she said.
