Young energy on bull way

By INN, Chennai, @infodeaofficial; 

Ever since taking off ban on Tamilnadu’s traditional game “Jallikattu” by Supreme Court has been hyped state – wide, the whole young crowd in the state gathered at the Marina beach. Jallikattu is a traditional game of Tamilnadu which is organised across the state in traditional way during Pongal on January 14,15 & 16. In Tamilnadu, Madurai, Allangathur Jallikattu is organised in a traditional way where people across the world come to see it. This is a very old traditional game and it’s well known that Tamilians are very passionate about their tradition. Which was the reason that a lot of people gathered on the Marina with all the energy, the bull way.
Demanding to legalize the traditional game, protest started on Marina beach from 15 of January this year and went on for days with protestors growing in strength. For six days, silent protest was on full swing at Marina with one demand in the voices. This silent protest was supposed to add another chapter in the democratic history of Tamilnadu and country as well.

But over the weekend, what started as the protest against the Supreme Court’s order banning Jallikattu, took an ugly turn and deviated from the main purpose. Young boys and girls along with volunteers from across Chennai gathered at the Marina against the protest. Messages were flooded across social media to give more strength to the protest which resulted in massive silent protest of family members and people from all walks of life joining the campaign.

All was well until the protest started losing the focus from the lifting of ban imposed by Supreme Court to accusing political parties and politicians from state and central politics. It was the best example of silent protest where people voluntarily joined hands to distribute food, water, tea, biscuits and other items free to the protestors at Marina. Volunteers were managing crowd and vehicular movement and police were relaxed because of the nature of the protest initially.
What transformed later was merger of small gangs with fringe and vested elements making the protest ugly and shift focus.

Destructive Monday

Everything was fine and calm till Sunday until police started dispersing crowd from Marina. They had to resort to lathi charge on youngsters leaving many injured, hospitalised and taken in to custody. It all started early in the morning after the Ice House Police Station was set on fire by some miscreants. The protest which was taking place on Marina ground now spread within the city and its sub urban areas. All the major junction, streets and signals were blocked in around the city leaving both public and private transports to a stand still. It was tough time for those who came out of their house in their private vehicles and motorists could somehow manage to skip protest choosing alternative ways.

It was the first time, Chennai experienced such chaos which was unexpected. After former Tamilnadu CM J. Jayalalithaa’s death, the situation went out of control from the hands of the police and administration which otherwise could have been managed. Protestors blocked the roads and police was not seen in any of the major signals, junctions, spots and streets. The entire Jallikattu protest was like the bull started with right potential but lost its direction in the end.