Chennai: On a day when bureaucracy and state administration could do very little to placate the agitating crowd, Mylapore DCP V. Balakrishnan became an exception in his regular parleys with the crowd.
Balakrishnan managed to gain the confidence of the agitators due to his successful conduct of jallikattu when he served as the SP of Madurai district. He even convinced agitators to send representatives for a round of discussion with ministers D. Jayakumar and K. Pandiarajan.
His exit was ceremonious all four times while politicos from Dravidian parties were chased away by the crowd across the state. Tuesday morning, the crowd’s primary demand was Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam to come to Marina to work. Around noon, Balakrishnan managed to put across what cops have in stock, for sea of protesters that continued to swell in Marina.
The DCP invoked his previous stint as SP in Madurai district, which came in handy to make his connect. Balakrishnan explained as to how he had twice conducted all three jallikattu fiestas - Alanganallur, Palamede and Avaniyapuram with pomp and gait.
He crisply instilled confidence on state being sensitive towards their sentiments and feelings, and detailed as to how the state was planning to exert pressure on the Centre to amend the legislation on animal cruelty. Finally, he read out the statement of OPS, which even the AIADMK ministers were reluctant to do.
