CHENNAI: The call to "temporarily pause" the protests in support of Jallikattu is intensifying in the social media despite the lack of popular support for the various state-sponsored Jallikattu events organised during the day.
While from the morning the popular demand was for a "permanent solution" to ensure unhindered conduct of Jallikattu every year, later in the day the calls to temporarily withdraw the protests are getting louder.
Karthikeya Sivasenapathy, the founder of Kangayam Research Foundation, in his Facebook post requested supporters of Jallikattu to "postpone the protest" and give the government time to react.
"My request to the youth and students is: please postpone the protest, do not call it off," he said. "We should wait for the government to take action. We are a part of the political system and cannot act outside of it. Instead, we need to work with the Prime Minister, chief minister, home minister and environment minister to achieve a favorable solution," he added.
He appealed to the youth and students that they should not dilute the protest, but gather again with the same spirit if need be in the future. "But until such time we should wait peacefully and patiently."
"Both the Centre and the State has given assurance to work on the issue, we should give them time," he said adding that the protest should not get digressed and the protesters should hang on to the only purpose of bringing back the sport legally.
"We need to fight this battle legally as much as we fight it with our spirits," said P Rajasekaran, the president of the state Jallikattu federation.
Messages with similar appeals are doing rounds in the social media circles since afternoon despite a considerable crowd still present in the major venue of protests across different cities and villages in the state. However, the crowds are still much less compared to the last two days.