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Will the dumb Supreme Court do a jallikattu for Rama Setu?

Madras HC judgement of 19 June 2007 on Rama Setu referred to hurting


sentiments of a community as a cognizable offence under Section 295 of
IPC. Former Supreme Court Justices Thomas and Krishna Iyer have
eloquently argued that sentiments of Hindus should be respected and
Rama Setu should be protected. Justice Krishna Iyer went on to say that
no patriotic Indian can support the Setu project.

Well, there are over 8000 pages of scientific evidence submitted to the
courts explaining how Setu project is a disaster and why Rama Setu
should be protected.

Will the Hon'ble Supreme Court do a jallikattu for Rama Setu?

We are beholden to Dr. Subramanian Swamy for bringing the decision


on Jallikattu to the notice of the 3-judge bench hearing the Rama Setu
issue on 16 Jan. 2008 when the Centre sought 2 weeks' time for
submitting their long over-due affidavit. It is heartening to note that the
Bench responded with good humour to this impassioned but correct
remark of Dr. Swamy.

Is the Centre listening? Is the Committee of Secretaries who indulge in


selective leaks to the media listening?

Thanks to Shri V. Sundaram for bringing out the imperative of uniform


and consistent judicial standards for judging sentiments of common
people.

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What makes SC play Jallikattu with Hindus

V SUNDARAM | Wed, 16 Jan, 2008 , 02:19 PM


.

The Supreme Court of India has been consistently inconsistent on vital issues affecting
the long cherished hopes, emotions, feelings, sentiments and sensibilities of the
common people of India. Yesterday the Supreme Court reversed the ban it had imposed
on Jallikattu in the Southern Districts of Tamil Nadu which it had imposed through an
order on 11 January, 2008. This has been widely welcomed by the people of Tamil Nadu.
The Supreme Court issued the ban order on 11 January, 2008 terming it as barbaric and
inhuman as bulls were tortured, administered chilli powder and local brew to make
them charge in an enraged manner. Soon after this ban order was announced, there was
a visible public uproar in Southern Tamil Nadu. The public consternation arose because
of the public perception that the Supreme Court of India was trying to crush the age-old
religious feelings and sentiments of the people. Thousands of them were determined to
defy the ban order of the Supreme Court and the public slogan was "Ignore the
Supreme Court order ! Come out into the open and participate in Jallikattu
at any cost, without any fear. Hold fast to your Jallikattu convictions !"
Many people in the rural areas of Madurai, Dindugal, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram,
Virudhunagar and Tirunelveli Districts considered the Supreme Court's peremptory
ban on Jallikattu as a direct religious and cultural attack on the Hindus of Tamil Nadu.
Surprisingly enough, the Government of Tamil Nadu came out with the argument that
the ban on the 600 years old traditional event of Jallikattu would hurt peoples' religious
feelings and sentiments. Referring to many intelligence reports, Government of Tamil
Nadu stated "in most villages, the people have decided to defy the Supreme
Court order and to go ahead with the celebration of Jallikattu as usual.......
.This situation could create a major law and order problem in many places
during the Pongal festival". Thus two basic issues were raised by the Government of
Tamil Nadu for getting the earlier ban order revoked by the Supreme Court. They are :
a) religious feelings of the people would get hurt. b) There will be a breakdown of law
and order because the people are determined to defy the orders of the Supreme Court.
It is understood that the Supreme Court put two relevant and embarrassing questions to
the Counsel appearing for Tamil Nadu Government : 1. Why is the Tamil Nadu
Government invoking religious sentiments in this Jallikattu case ?. 2. What
would be their stand in the Rama Sethu case pending before the Supreme
Court ?
The Hindus of India in absolute majority expect the Supreme Court of India not to
function as the fountainhead of religious and political discrimination at the apex level.
When Dayananda Saraswathy, several other Madadhipathis and may others filed
a writ petition in the Supreme Court of India in August 2006, seeking a ban on the
demolition of more than 1.7 million years old Rama Sethu ( even according to NASA
report ), the Supreme Court rejected it summarily. Now on a petition filed by Tamil
Nadu Government for removing a ban on Jallikattu on the ground that it is an event
which has been going on in Tamil Nadu for over 400 years and that a ban on it would
hurt the religious feelings of the people, the Supreme Court has reversed its order of
January 11, 2008 in just 5 days. If the religious feelings of the people of Tamil Nadu can
get hurt by a ban on Jallikattu, the Supreme Court should not fail to take note of the fact
that the deliberate attempt of UPA Government to destroy the timeless Rama Sethu
bridge in Rameswaram will equally hurt ( if not more ! ) the religious feelings of
nearly 900 millions of Hindus in India and also of millions of Hindus outside India in all
the other parts of the world. Any court of law should be able to distinguish
between Jallikattu which only has a local significance in Tamil Nadu and
Rama Sethu which is of national and international significance.
If the Government of Tamil Nadu is concerned about the breakdown of law and order
following the Supreme Court's ban on Jallikattu, it should not also ignore the fact that
if the might of the State is deployed for the planned destruction of Rama Sethu, which
has been in existence for centuries, all the Hindus of India would not hesitate to unite in
order to take the matter to the streets for asserting and claiming their age old Hindu
rights regarding Rama Sethu. In that event, there will be a greater breakdown of law
and order not only in Tamil Nadu but throughout the nation.
I can do no better than conclude in the words of Anjana Suthan :
"The 'Bull' (Rishabam in Sanskrit & Kaalai in Tamil) is worshipped as
'Nandhi' Bhagwan by the Hindus. The Nandhi Bhagwan has exposed the
hypocrisy of the Tamil Nadu government and the duplicity of Dravidianism
through the 'Jalli Kattu' controversy. The rationalist Tamil Nadu
government headed by an Atheist Chief Minister, which questioned the
truth of Ramayana, historicity of Lord Rama and existence of thousands of
years old Rama Sethu in the ongoing SSCP controversy, had shamelessly
taken shelter under 'Hindu Religion' while arguing its case for the
conduction of Jalli Kattu. While the 'Bull fight' has only cultural tradition
and not any religiousness attached to it, the state government had
presented to the Apex Court that, the Bull fight organized during the Pongal
festival is an ancient traditional sports more than 400 years old and that
the stopping of such a sport would hurt the 'religious' sentiments of the
people. The government had requested the SC to lift the stay on the above
grounds and the Supreme Court had obliged only after laying certain
conditions such as, the organizers must obtain permission from the district
Collector, registration must be made, Animal Husbandry officials must
inspect the Bulls, participants must be registered, Medical facilities &
presence of Veterinary teams must be ensured, the event must come under
the observation of Animal Welfare Board Members and the event must be
video graphed by government media like Doordarshan. The stay was lifted
only late in the afternoon yesterday, but surprisingly the event is 'on' today
itself in Alanganallur. One wonders how the District Administration could
ensure all the above guidelines annexed by the SC within 24 hrs!..... In the
process, the Supreme Court also stands totally exposed! The Supreme
Court, which delayed to the maximum possible extent to grant a stay on the
destruction of Sacred Rama Sethu, when arguments were made and hell of
a lot of Proofs & authentic documents were submitted on Religious
grounds, had yielded to the Atheist state government in just one sitting, on
the same religious grounds. What an irony!"

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