BJP on horns of a dilemma over allowing jallikattu

It’s election season in Tamil Nadu and all political parties are tying themselves in knots over the banned jallikattu but none more than the BJP, says R Ramasubramanian.

The Bharatiya Janata Party faces a catch-22 situation, rather a nasty predicament of sorts, in Tamil Nadu. The reason is jallikattu (the traditional bull-taming sport) in the state, which is part of the four-day Pongal festival. 

The age-old sport was banned by the Supreme Court on May 7, 2014, along with rackla racing (bullock cart racing) in Karnataka. A division bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Pinaki Chandra Misra had, in a detailed and elaborate order, struck down the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Jallikattu Act 2009 which paved the way for conducting the sport in the state. Inter alia the bench ruled that “forcing a bull and keeping it in the waiting area and subjecting it to the scorching sun are not for the animal’s wellbeing. Forcing and pulling the animal by a nose rope in to the closed, narrow enclosure called “vaadivasal” (meaning entry point in Tamil), subjecting it to all forms of torture, pain and suffering by forcing it to go in the arena and overpowering it in the arena by bull tamers are not for the well being of the animal”. 

The bench had further said, “The Animal Welfare Board of India (one of the petitioners in the SC against jallikattu) had submitted with adequate proof and material how much cruelty was inflicted on the animals while conducting jallikattu.”  The bench added that jallikattu organisers deprived the animals of their rights guaranteed under Section 3 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 and said, “Perversity and sadism are writ large in the actions of the organisers of jallikattu and the event is not meant for the wellbeing of the animal but for the pleasure and enjoyment of human beings”. 

Thus, the division bench ruled that it was striking down the Tamil Nadu Regulation of Jallikattu Act of 2009 and also ruled that the Central Act of 1960 shall alone be in force.

It’s against this background that one must view the growing clamour for conducting jallikattu in Tamil Nadu where almost all the political parties, except the Dalit outfits, are demanding that the sport be permitted in the state. Tamil Nadu goes to the polls in three to four months time and one can easily understand the anxiety of the political parties in this regard to be seen scoring brownie points for defending “Tamil culture”. But it is the BJP’s role in the whole drama that is much more interesting as it borders on a comedy of sorts.

The saffron party, which enjoys just two per cent of the vote share in the state, is desperate to earn reasonable presence in the 234-member assembly. Though the BJP had entered the assembly in 1996 with one MLA and gained four seats in 2001 (thanks to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam tieup), it came a cropper in both the 2006 and 2011 assemblies. 

So today a desperate BJP is usurping every issue that it thinks is near and dear to the people’s sentiments, the latest addition to the list being jallikattu.

For the past few months the TN BJP leaders were holding out promises that they will permit jallikattu this year. A steady stream of delegations comprising the organising committee members of jallikattu were taken to New Delhi where they met Union environment minister Prakash Jawadekar. Promise after promise was delivered to the organising committee members in private and the state BJP leaders delivered the same to the media as well. Alas, nothing tangible has emerged till this minute and the situation only got further complicated with Attorney General Mukhul Rohatgi reportedly advising the Union government against any adventure, that is, promulgating an ordinance to overturn the SC order.

The TN unit of BJP which till December end was putting up a brave face, after Rohatgi’s advice changed its tone and tenor, with its leaders saying that there are indeed legal impediments in allowing jallikattu this time. 

One short cut that started doing the rounds was to remove bulls from the “performing animals” list and thereby allow jallikattu. But this is simply not possible, say experts who have been associated with this issue for years.

“This cannot be achieved. The SC’s ruling was based on three important facts. One, an under secretary in the ministry of environment and forests did make this proposal to the SC bench in 2014, when then environment minister Veerappa Moily agreed to remove bulls from the “performing animals” list. But the SC bench dismissed the proposal and opined that it was after due diligence and on recommendations of the AWBI that the bull had been added to the category. Two, the SC said that the elaborate work done by AWBI had brought out the reality that bulls were subjected to untold sufferings and cruelty and the board had adequately documented these by way of irrefutable videos and photographs and other relevant materials. And three, the SC, while dismissing the argument that jallikattu is a cultural event and hence cannot be curtailed, said the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 Act is a welfare Act and it was a settled position in law that if there is a clash between an activity connected with culture and a welfare Act, it is the latter which shall prevail,” Dr S Chinny Krishna, vice chairman, AWBI told Rediff.com. 

Now the TN BJP has entered into a slugfest with the Congress by repeatedly raking up the issue that it was the Congress party’s Jairam Ramesh as environment minister who had included bulls in the “performing animals” list. TN Congress leaders have retaliated by asking what has the BJP done in these last 19 months to rectify this. 

Another important angle is that Dalit outfits are not showing any interest in jallitkattu simply because it is considered as an adventure of dominant castes in the state. In fact, clashes between Dalits and non-Dalits had become a regular feature every year after jallikattu events. Naturally, a section of writers and Dalit activists and Dalit political parties oppose any move to resurrect the sport. 

“Jallikattu is practiced in just three districts -- Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram. In Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram Dalits cannot go anywhere near the bulls but in the famous Alanganallur event in Madurai, Dalits are allowed. The dominant castes don’t like even their bulls being touched by Dalits. Jallikattu is just a romanticised event conducted by the dominant castes to showcase their so-called caste pride and to belittle Dalits,” says R Muthukrishnan, a Madurai-based writer.

“An inherent anti-Dalit attitude runs deep in the sport. There are several instances of riots after a Dalit overpowered a bull because the dominant castes simply cannot digest it. Another sad reality is that since the top officials of the district administrations are dominated by the oppressing classes, you can understand the problems Dalits face during the jallikattu period.”

Today every political party is demanding the resurrection of jallikattu in Tamil Nadu. Knowing well the harsh reality, everyone is upping the ante because this is election season. But the tone and tenor of the BJP, which was shrill even just a week ago, is undergoing a change. The reasons are obvious. Slowly but steadily, reality is dawning on the saffron party that repeated false promises will only put it in a spot.

In what may be considered an irony of sorts, on January 4, minister of state for road transport, highways and shipping Pon Radhakrishnan, the only BJP Union minister from TN, received a minor injury when he patted a jallikattu bull during a function in Ariyalur district. The minister was receiving petitions from villagers urging him to arrange for jallikattu when he walked up to one of the bulls and patted it. The bull reared its head, resulting in the minister’s ring getting snared in its horns. Though the minister was able to wrest his hand quickly, he suffered a minor injury on his palm.

But the blow to the party’s pride is by no means minor.

Image: A file photograph of jallikattu in Tamil Nadu. Photograph: Babu/Reuters.