For the second day on Thursday, thousands of students and other supporters of jallikattu turned up on the Alagarkoil Road to show their protest against the ban on jallikattu.
With the crowds swelling, the students’ enthusiasm did not have a reason to go down in raising slogans against People for Ethical Treatment. It was not just raising of slogans, for a good number of students it was time to show their protest in all forms.
Some students, both boys and girls, went around in small circular path playing kummi in favour of jallikattu. Some boys tried to show their brave act by forming human tower. Some boys also had a mock jallikattu on the road.
Many college students were busy making placards with newer slogans to attract the crowd. Many women joined the protests since early morning. Several volunteers turned up at the venue to serve water, cool drinks, snacks and food to the agitators.
The less serious souls had all the fun of dancing and running around like a train.
“The atmosphere resembles the Chithirai festival mood with so many people coming here (the stretch of road between Tamukkam ground and Goripalayam) with family members,” quipped P.K. Subramani (70).
An ex-serviceman, Mr. Subramani, said that the present protest by students was so huge and intense after the anti-Hindi agitation in 1965. “The difference now is that, the present protest is by the students themselves, while in 1965 it was led by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam,” he said.
The students who had blocked vehicular traffic on the Goripalayam junction since Wednesday, however, moved into the Alagarkoil Road after the police put up a banner that 5,000 in-patients and out-patients are getting treated in Government Rajaji hospital. They also appealed to keep the junction free for traffic flow for the benefit of the patients.
