Tamil Nadu Congress has refuted the BJP’s charge that it had supported a ban on jallikattu in its manifesto for the 2016 Assembly polls in the State. C.R. Kesavan, member of the manifesto-drafting committee for Tamil Nadu said the document issued by the party was very clearly for “legalised jallikattu”.
“I was a member of the manifesto-drafting committee of the Congress in the last year’s polls and nowhere does it say that we are supportive of the ban on jallikattu,” he said.
He was reacting to an interview with Union Minister for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman carried in the The Hindu on Tuesday, in which the Minister had alleged that the Congress had changed its earlier stance of supporting a ban on the sport and in the face of popular protests was supporting the lifting of the ban.
“What the Minister said is not correct,” he said. He added that while it was true that it was the UPA government in 2011 that allowed bulls to be added to the list of performing animals that effectively ended chances of a legally sanctioned jallikattu, the then UPA had subsequently amended the affidavit in a matter going on in the Supreme Court, seeking that bulls be exempt from the list of performing animals,” he said.
“Furthermore, under the UPA government, from 2012-14, jallikattu had taken place every January in Tamil Nadu, till of course the Supreme Court decision in May 2014,” Mr. Kesavan said.
