Legislators debated on which political party was responsible for ‘reviving’ the tradition of jallikattu in Tamil Nadu in the Assembly on Thursday.
AIADMK MLA S. Sekar representing Paramathivelur constituency began his speech on the Budgetary demands for Handloom Department by thanking his party leaders and referred to former Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam as ‘Jallikattu nayagan” (hero).
This did not go down well with the ruling party members. Subsequently, former School Education Minister K.A. Sengottaiyan said at a time when the State could not hold the sport, it was Mr. Panneerselvam who had made the efforts to get the permission to hold the event.
However, Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises T.M. Anbarasan recalled that in 2005 the court had ruled against holding rekla race and jallikattu but the next year the DMK had won a legal battle and jallikattu was held.
A member wanted to know how many jallikattu events Mr. Panneerselvam had participated in to be worthy of the title ‘Jallikattu Nayagan’.
Some ruling DMK members pointed out that the protest against the ban on jallikattu had been started by “Tamils worldwide”.
Mr. Panneerselvam said when the protests began his government had approached the Supreme Court.
Speaker M. Appavu intervened and urged the members to take up the Budget demand for Handloom, Handicraft, Textile and Khadi Department.
