In a sad personification of Supreme Court’s wisdom, two people on Sunday lost their lives during Jallikattu celebrations in Tamil Nadu, something the apex court had apprehended while banning the bull-taming sports. While protestors kept on arguing that Jallikattu is not harmful to the bulls – they almost forgot that this man vs animal bout – is also dangerous to the humans. It should be noted that Sunday’s event was one of the firsts after promulgation of the ordinance, and was carried out with more precision and care than it happens in normal cases, also with higher security deployment. Yet, 85 people were injured, there was a little stampede, and worse – two human lives were lost.
Here, two questions arise – Whom to blame for these deaths? And what actually are the mobs protesting for?
Let’s address the first question. While Supreme Court was rational in its decision considering all related aspects, mobs too, had the right to protest as their sentiments were hurt. Here, political parties saw clear opportunism and fueled the sentiments by virtually twisting up a ‘tradition’ with “Tamil pride and Culture.” While Senior DMK leaders openly defied Supreme Court orders to participate in the sports, CM O Panneerselavam too, had a clear stance that bull-taming sports should be legalised.
It’s not that this was the first such incident and state government, before promulgating the ordinance, was not aware of the consequences. Different media reports say, that in just a period of four years, from 2010 to 2014, at least 1,100 people have been injured due to jallikattu-type events, and 17 human lives were lost.
Clearly, to encash Tamil sentiments in their favour, both DMK and AIADMK deviated from rationale, and passed the ordinance in a knee-jerk manner. While, Narendra Modi-led centre too, played the role of silent spectator, as it didn’t want to go wrong in people’s eye. Result – PETA, and Supreme Court remained only ones to blame for the entire chaos. But what now that two human lives have been lost? Whom to blame – the bulls!
Also watch: Protests To Continue Until ‘Permanent Solution’ Delivered: Jallikattu Supporters
Now, the next question- What the mobs, celebrities and politicians, were protesting for?
Well, this was not the first time that mobs, provoked by local politicians, were out in India against something rationale. However, this time we saw celebrities like Vishwanathan Anand, Kamal Hassan and AR Rahman speaking in support of festival – will they now come out again and explain to the world why these two people, and also those in past, had to sacrifice their life on the name of tradition. Kamal Hassan had said that if we can ban Jalikattu, why not ban biryani? Because, Biryani at least doesn’t take human lives.
Maybe it’s late, but time has not passed, when politicians and celebrities should give it a second thought that what is more important – Human lives, animals, or “culture”.
