Tamils see Jallikattu Bill as final solution

Organisers thank students; ask them to call off protests

Close on the heels of Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam tabling jallikattu legislation in the Assembly, prime organisers of the jallikattu protests reiterated that with the Assembly now passing the law and getting the Presidential assent, jallikattu bulls would run unhindered from now on.

Jallikattu Peravai president Rajasekaran, hip hop musician Tamizha Adhi and Veera Vilayatu Peravai organiser Rajesh welcomed the Tamil Nadu Assembly passing the jallikattu law and asserted this was the “permanent solution” to the issue. They also asked the students and youngsters to call off their protest.

The sober voices, who maintained that the Bill was unlikely to be challenged in a court of law, termed the jallikattu movement success and gave the entire credit to the students and youth who camped at Marina beach and elsewhere in the state for the past one week.

“We thank the ruling party and Opposition parties for unanimously passing the jallikattu Bill in such a short time. This is a historic day for us since jallikattu would be held unhindered from now. We salute the spirit of the students and youngsters who made this happen,” a beaming Rajasekaran told reporters inside the secretariat complex.

Rajasekaran was among the first to appeal to the students to call of their agitation on Sunday as he addressed a press conference along with Adhi and Karthikeyan Sivasenapathy by asserting that the ordinance, which has now been replaced with a law, was the permanent solution that they have been demanding.

He and Adhi had also disapproved anti-national slogans at the protest sites.

Protesters supporting jallikattu try to hold on to each other as police try to remove them from the Marina beach in Chennai on Monday. Protesters attacked a police station with stones and set some vehicles on fire on Monday in anger at being forcibly...