Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai on Thursday, May 18, 2023, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ”his persistent efforts” to permanently lift the ban on jallikattu.
Welcoming the Supreme Court’s verdict on Thursday, upholding Tamil Nadu’s legislation allowing the sport, Mr. Annamalai, in a message on Twitter, contended, “If there was anyone who stood for jallikattu from the beginning to now,” it was Prime Minister Modi.
Alleging that the Congress party was against jallikattu, he said former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh from the party had termed the sport “barbaric”. He alleged that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also discouraged bullfights. He further said the Congress party supported the ban on jallikattu in its election manifesto for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections in 2016.
Crediting the Union government for enabling the conduct of jallikattu in 2016, he said it was the present Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who requested the Tamil Nadu government to promulgate an ordinance in 2017 when its government order was stayed by the Supreme Court.
