With those who only had jallikattu on agenda withdrawing their support, the call for ending the protest is getting louder. Agitators demanding a permanent solution too have little to fight for as the State govt intends to pilot a bill in the State Assembly today
CHENNAI: Despite the State government announcing that jallikattu was organised in many places across the State, the crowds gathered at the Marina continued to occupy the beach on Sunday though many had different reasons. The crowd was much less in the morning, compared to the previous days, but it steadily grew as the day passed.
Many were on their usual Sunday outing with family to the beach, but wore black and sat along with the protesters for a few hours as they felt they had to express their solidarity with the protesters. The announcements of jallikattu being organised at different villages elicited different responses. A few felt the protest must be halted as many activists who were campaigning for it had called to end the protests. But there were a few who thought otherwise.
“We are not fools,” said G Nishith who works at an advertising agency. “We know it is a manipulative move on the part of the Government to ensure a smooth Republic Day celebration. After January 26, they will show their true colours,” Nishith added.
The announcement that schools and colleges would re-open tomorrow made many to think they should leave early to get their children ready to troop back to school. But there were also a few who were convinced that the protest must be continued to achieve a “permanent solution” to ensure there would be no more hurdles to jallikattu.
“An ordinance is not a solution, it is just the easy way out,” said S Venkatesh, who works as an operator at TVS Sundaram Clayton and has been a regular at the protests. “We haven’t seen jallikattu being played in three years, if we don’t play it for longer, we will forget it and our children will one day wonder what it was all about. We have to preserve our tradition. Today they are saying don’t play jallikattu, tomorrow they will say they don’t speak Tamil!”
Despite several social media posts that the protests had changed direction and was being hijacked by many other groups, there remained a few who were committed to the cause of jallikattu.
“I have been doing anything and everything these last five days,” said D Dinakaran, one of the many volunteers. The 32-year-old Ola cab driver has been here every day and night volunteering to clean the beach. “There are so many people here and there was a lot of garbage. I couldn’t bear it so I just picked up a garbage bag and a pair of gloves and started dumping the trash in.”
Dinakaran, like the others, believes very strongly in the cause. “We are all here because we have grown up drinking cow’s milk. We should not forget that. It is our duty to fight for our native breeds,” he said.