Chennai: It’s almost a week since the students and other youths took to the streets and filled the maidans agitating for the lifting of the ban on Jallikattu.
Amid all the high-decibel sloganeering and demonstrations, one significant factor that emerges is that, despite the congregations being so huge and the issue so sensitively volatile among the participants so young and robust, the dominating element has been maintenance of peace and order.
“There is an undeclared moratorium on violence in the protests across the state. We have no formal leadership teams. Everyone here is a leader. This is a spontaneous uprising of youth power fighting for jallikattu, the symbol of Tamil valour, of our culture and tradition. Our culture and tradition also shun violence”, said Indu Priyadarshini, a 23-year-old B.Tech graduate and industrial entrepreneur, who has been at the Marina protest since Tuesday morning.
“Jallikattu is not just for protecting our culture and tradition; it is also for protecting our nation’s health and wealth. This is to protect our native cattle and get them back to nourish our fields, where now tractors and other machines are ruining the earth”, reasoned Indu.
Another young entrepreneur, Kenneth Hananiah of Tambaram, has been at Marina since Tuesday evening. “Last night someone offered me a plate of briyani and today morning I got pongal. Not one tummy was left unfilled. Such is the love of our brothers. A team of medical students made way through the crowd, saying the ‘doctors are here’. The lawyers are here. School students are here. The IT guys are here. Families and old guys are here”, said Kenneth.
The protesters have been enforcing yet another undeclared moratorium — they have kept out politicians of all hues. Perhaps they realised, correctly, that permitting politicians into their fold would mean inviting trouble. At Madurantakam, local DMK legislator S. Pugazhenthi was packed off when he arrived to make a speech at the students’ protest and at Trichy, ex-minister K. N. Nehru, present MLA, was turned away by the protesters. And when some youths hurled water packets, others in the congregation raised hands and screamed, ‘Stop it. This is a peaceful protest’. If nothing else will work with the decision-makers up north, just this demonstration of peace and order must move mountains.
