Jallikattu today as guv clears ordinance

Jallikattu is legal again. Tamil Nadu’s traditional and popular bull-taming sport will be held in three places near Madurai on Sunday morning — without the fear of a Supreme Court ban.

The state government promulgated an ordinance, which has governor C Vidyasagar Rao’s approval, on Saturday evening to circumvent the 2014 court ban on Jallikattu that has galvanised millions of people and morphed into a symbol of Tamil pride.

“The bulls, which have been locked up, will come so that the Jallikattu warriors can Protesters at Chennai’s Marina beach, the Ground Zero of the campaign, said they want a permanent law.

embrace them,” said chief minister O Panneerselvam before leaving for the temple town of Madurai.

But thousands of protesters camping on Chennai’s landmark Marina beach for the past five days thought the White House staff secretary Rob Porter (second from right) gives US President Donald Trump, flanked by vice-president Mike Pence (left) and chief of staff Reince Priebus (right) documents for signing. ordinance was a half-measure. “It doesn’t guarantee that the sport won’t be banned again,” said M Gurumurthy, a chartered accountant.

The government appears to have kept this in mind. In addition to announcing the ordinance and the details of the Jallikattu bouts that will be held on Sunday, the AIADMK said a bill to replace the ordinance will be tabled in the assembly, which sits from January 23. “If they pass a bill and make sure no foreign NGO will ever dictate to us what is and isn’t our culture, then I will be happy,” said Ganesh R, an IT worker.

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