First and foremost I don't buy this argument that Jalikattu is the only way to save native breeds. As has been widely mentioned the total native breed count has come down from 150 to 37. Jalikattu has been banned for only 2 years now and we didn't lose 113 breeds in 2 years for sure. The main reason is people moving away from low end farming job(MREGA is also a reason when people get paid for doing almost nothing) which causes shortage of people to help in farming which forces the farmers to move on to tractors and other mechanised farm equipments. Hence the farmers didn't have any use for the bulls and that is the reason why they are becoming extinct and not because of ban on Jalikattu. As mentioned in my earlier post, I strongly feel that the reasoning being given is same as justifying female foeticide.
Secondly the most quoted A1 vs A2 milk hypothesis. As mentioned it is just an hypothesis and not proven. There is no scientific research which has proved this, so let us stop spreading falsehood.
The protest that has been going on for over a week was very peaceful which was really surprising to see, as with such large crowd things can easily get ugly (as it started happening since this morning). Police and the administration also played the patient game till this morning. There were many good stories - of women not being harassed, people cleaning garbage from the protest sites, helping police in traffic regulation, etc. There were many women and children who joined the protest without any worries. All these are huge positives of how to run a peaceful protest.
I am not for or against Jalikattu. However, if it is held I would expect it to be held with strict guidelines in ensuring the bulls are not hurt.
There are statements being made that maadu muduthu naanga vangikarom. Try telling this to the family members of the two people who were killed yesterday.
Coming to the topic of this post
1) There were no leader for this protest and no one to guide them. It was fanned by social media where any meme or post is construed as truth
2) When there are no leaders there is no one to guide them and hence they don't know what they were really protesting for and when to end the protest.
3) Asking for ban on PETA, American products are stretching the protest beyond the realm of what it all started for
4) There were more peer pressure on people to be part of the protest. Many wanted to tell the world that they were also part of this.
5) I was disappointed to see posters of LTTE Prabhakaran being shown on live television.
6) Tamil Electronic media also didn't come out with glowing colors. There were many rumors that were spread without verification (like this morning when there was a news that Maneka Gandhi had filed a case against Jalikattu). The sad part is that most of the news channels in TN have backing of some political party or other and or they have their political motives. That being the case the coverage or the lack of it was driven by what their owners wanted to do.
7) In the age of social media, everything flies. People don't validate anything and just keep passing on whatever they get. I saw many pictures since this morning of people being dragged and beaten including by police of other states (their badges were a clear give away). I used to wonder why in Kashmir the mobile data and internet are often cut off by the government, it helps in stopping all these kind of spreading falsehood.
8) The protesters didn't even understand what an ordinance is. Just because the term being widely used to mean ordinance in tamil ("Avasara sattam") gives a meaning that it is temporary and quick fix doesn't mean that's what it is. There was no one to guide them on what an ordinance is. I heard people complaining that it is applicable only for 6 months - this is after the CM assured that he will table the law in the assembly this week itself. With a majority in the assembly and with such huge public support - every party in the assembly would have blindly supported the law.
9) Given that scenario when the CM personally went to inaugurate the Jalikattu event he was sent back by the people and protesters of Alanganallur.
10) When the government has done so much in terms of taking the central government into confidence, getting the ordinance passed and assuring that the law replacing the ordinance will be tabled in the assembly immediately after it convenes this week - not sure what more the protesters were expecting. Even the so called leaders called for the protest to be ended yesterday not sure what kept them going on with the protest.
11) It is very easy for such a large gathering to turn violent as has happened this morning in terms of burning vehicles outside two police stations.
12) This protest has run its course and should have ended when the ordinance was passed on Saturday. What happened to the CM yesterday would have been the last straw for the government.
13) The police and the administration have done their part in terms of ensuring no violence happened in the last 7 days and also passing the law and post that they will definitely act to clear the protesters from the protest sites.
14) Some elements among the protesters (or some goons who were not part of the protesters) will obviously react back with violence.
In Conclusion
I personally feel that this protest is so misguided that the reasoning itself is all wrong. Jalikattu is not going to save the distressed farmers (the poor farmers committing suicide are not the ones who rear bulls), it is not going to save the breeds from extinction, it is not going to give you healthy milk. I am still surprised how so many educated people have been blindly fooled to believe all this will happen just by conducting Jalikattu. If the protest was to just uphold the age old culture, then it is a different thing.
I would have been happy if the protesters had made just one request to government - provide funds and means to ensure the native breeds don't become extinct. That would have been a more meaningful thing to ask for than conducting Jalikattu, banning Peta, amending PCA and what not.
Secondly the most quoted A1 vs A2 milk hypothesis. As mentioned it is just an hypothesis and not proven. There is no scientific research which has proved this, so let us stop spreading falsehood.
The protest that has been going on for over a week was very peaceful which was really surprising to see, as with such large crowd things can easily get ugly (as it started happening since this morning). Police and the administration also played the patient game till this morning. There were many good stories - of women not being harassed, people cleaning garbage from the protest sites, helping police in traffic regulation, etc. There were many women and children who joined the protest without any worries. All these are huge positives of how to run a peaceful protest.
I am not for or against Jalikattu. However, if it is held I would expect it to be held with strict guidelines in ensuring the bulls are not hurt.
There are statements being made that maadu muduthu naanga vangikarom. Try telling this to the family members of the two people who were killed yesterday.
Coming to the topic of this post
1) There were no leader for this protest and no one to guide them. It was fanned by social media where any meme or post is construed as truth
2) When there are no leaders there is no one to guide them and hence they don't know what they were really protesting for and when to end the protest.
3) Asking for ban on PETA, American products are stretching the protest beyond the realm of what it all started for
4) There were more peer pressure on people to be part of the protest. Many wanted to tell the world that they were also part of this.
5) I was disappointed to see posters of LTTE Prabhakaran being shown on live television.
6) Tamil Electronic media also didn't come out with glowing colors. There were many rumors that were spread without verification (like this morning when there was a news that Maneka Gandhi had filed a case against Jalikattu). The sad part is that most of the news channels in TN have backing of some political party or other and or they have their political motives. That being the case the coverage or the lack of it was driven by what their owners wanted to do.
7) In the age of social media, everything flies. People don't validate anything and just keep passing on whatever they get. I saw many pictures since this morning of people being dragged and beaten including by police of other states (their badges were a clear give away). I used to wonder why in Kashmir the mobile data and internet are often cut off by the government, it helps in stopping all these kind of spreading falsehood.
8) The protesters didn't even understand what an ordinance is. Just because the term being widely used to mean ordinance in tamil ("Avasara sattam") gives a meaning that it is temporary and quick fix doesn't mean that's what it is. There was no one to guide them on what an ordinance is. I heard people complaining that it is applicable only for 6 months - this is after the CM assured that he will table the law in the assembly this week itself. With a majority in the assembly and with such huge public support - every party in the assembly would have blindly supported the law.
9) Given that scenario when the CM personally went to inaugurate the Jalikattu event he was sent back by the people and protesters of Alanganallur.
10) When the government has done so much in terms of taking the central government into confidence, getting the ordinance passed and assuring that the law replacing the ordinance will be tabled in the assembly immediately after it convenes this week - not sure what more the protesters were expecting. Even the so called leaders called for the protest to be ended yesterday not sure what kept them going on with the protest.
11) It is very easy for such a large gathering to turn violent as has happened this morning in terms of burning vehicles outside two police stations.
12) This protest has run its course and should have ended when the ordinance was passed on Saturday. What happened to the CM yesterday would have been the last straw for the government.
13) The police and the administration have done their part in terms of ensuring no violence happened in the last 7 days and also passing the law and post that they will definitely act to clear the protesters from the protest sites.
14) Some elements among the protesters (or some goons who were not part of the protesters) will obviously react back with violence.
In Conclusion
I personally feel that this protest is so misguided that the reasoning itself is all wrong. Jalikattu is not going to save the distressed farmers (the poor farmers committing suicide are not the ones who rear bulls), it is not going to save the breeds from extinction, it is not going to give you healthy milk. I am still surprised how so many educated people have been blindly fooled to believe all this will happen just by conducting Jalikattu. If the protest was to just uphold the age old culture, then it is a different thing.
I would have been happy if the protesters had made just one request to government - provide funds and means to ensure the native breeds don't become extinct. That would have been a more meaningful thing to ask for than conducting Jalikattu, banning Peta, amending PCA and what not.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis historic peaceful agitation is not only for jallikattu. Jallikattu is actually firing the dynamite. It fired the collective frustration caused by many betrayals. One such happening is the secret of former CM health / death and the immediate political scenes.
ReplyDeleteI agree and disagree with some points. I agree with 3,4,5,6 and partially agree with some other points too.
Point 9 is the serious issue. This is the actual plan of the CM and PM meeting. Once their meeting is done and ordinance is passed, the event should happen. This will give both of them a political weightage. I saw CM's press meet about the explanation of the ordinance. Either he don't know how to explain or he did not want to explain. Today, they released the details of amendments and got circulated in social media. They could have been transparent on that day too. One should explain what the ordinance is about. Everyone is not a lawyer, so it is the duty of the govt to explain it. Without revealing any details he went to inaugurate the event. He was sent back - nothing wrong. If people misunderstand ordinance, he is committed to explain it. He didn’t hence the plan failed.
It would be nice if you include the angle of animal welfare orgs that is so strong to ban such cultural happenings in India. Tomorrow someone can ban Bharatanatyam or Veshti. To my understanding PeTA is not animal welfare - it is animal activist. If they are so concerned, they can start Gau Shala as some Jains / others do in Karnataka and may be in other places too.
I am not disagreeing that this protest was the eruption of many pent up issues. My post was primarily about the main objective of the protest at no point am I going into the other aspects of the same. The main issue is there was no leader - the government cannot be talking to 100,000+ people.. it can only talk to a few. There were many attempts to identify the leaders of this protest but not anyone was accepted. Also the original protesters - Hima kiran or Karthikeya senathipathy were convinced that this ordinance was good enough, probably the government tasked them to convince the protesters. They also failed to convince them as they were accused of taking money from the government on Friday and Saturday.
DeleteFor me to write about PETA need lot more research on their funding, let me see what I can find about that.