Chennai: Punching holes in statements of BJP leaders that the erstwhile UPA was responsible for non-conduct of jallikattu for the past two years, TNCC chief Su Thirunavukarasar on Sunday said the sport was held for three years even after the then Congress-led Government removed bulls from the list of performing animals.
In a statement here, the TNCC chief also announced that its legislature party leader K.R. Ramasamy and former Union minister E.M. Sudharsana Natchiappan will represent the party at a protest demanding conduct of jallikattu to be organised by the DMK under the leadership of Stalin in Alanganallur in Madurai district on Tuesday.
“Due to misunderstanding of how jallikattu is conducted, social activists had been demanding a ban on the event. In the backdrop, the Union government had in 2011 removed bulls from the list of performing animals. The Supreme Court had in 2014 imposed a stay on jallikattu and the event was not held in 2015 and 2016,” Mr Thirunavukarasar said.
He accused the BJP government of not just exempting bulls from the list of performing animals and not adding them that would have ensured that jallikattu took place. The TNCC chief also noted that the BJP “brought the order in January 2016” only to hoodwink the people of Tamil Nadu despite knowing that an order of the Supreme Court cannot be superceded by a “mere executive order”.
“BJP leader Pon Radhakrishnan has been blaming the 2011 notification for the non-conduct of jallikattu. But I would like to remind Mr Radhakrishnan that jallikattu was held from 2012 to 2014 for three years through the order of the Madurai Bench of the Madras high court,” he said.
If the BJP had brought an ordinance against the SC order in 2014, jallikattu would have been held for the past two years, Mr Thirunavukarasu said.
