Will the Dumb Supreme Court Do a Jallikattu for Rama Setu

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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 hurtingsentiments of a community as a cognizable offence under Section 295 of IPC. Former Supreme Court Justices Thomas and Krishna Iyer haveeloquently argued that sentiments of Hindus should be respected andRama Setu should be protected. Justice Krishna Iyer went on to say thatno patriotic Indian can support the Setu project. Well, there are over 8000 pages of scientific evidence submitted to thecourts explaining how Setu project is a disaster and why Rama Setushould be protected. Will the Hon'ble Supreme Court do a jallikattu for Rama Setu? We are beholden to Dr. Subramanian Swamy for bringing the decisionon Jallikattu to the notice of the 3-judge bench hearing the Rama Setuissue on 16 Jan. 2008 when the Centre sought 2 weeks' time forsubmitting their long over-due affidavit. It is heartening to note that theBench responded with good humour to this impassioned but correctremark of Dr. Swamy.Is the Centre listening? Is the Committee of Secretaries who indulge inselective leaks to the media listening?Thanks to Shri V. Sundaram for bringing out the imperative of uniformand consistent judicial standards for judging sentiments of commonpeople.k

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 affectingthe long cherished hopes, emotions, feelings, sentiments and sensibilities of thecommon people of India. Yesterday the Supreme Court reversed the ban it had imposedon Jallikattu in the Southern Districts of Tamil Nadu which it had imposed through anorder 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 andinhuman as bulls were tortured, administered chilli powder and local brew to makethem charge in an enraged manner. Soon after this ban order was announced, there wasa visible public uproar in Southern Tamil Nadu. The public consternation arose becauseof the public perception that the Supreme Court of India was trying to crush the age-oldreligious feelings and sentiments of the people. Thousands of them were determined todefy the ban order of the Supreme Court and the public slogan was

"Ignore theSupreme Court order ! Come out into the open and participate in Jallikattuat 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 thatthe ban on the 600 years old traditional event of Jallikattu would hurt peoples' religiousfeelings and sentiments. Referring to many intelligence reports, Government of TamilNadu stated

"in most villages, the people have decided to defy the SupremeCourt order and to go ahead with the celebration of Jallikattu as usual........This situation could create a major law and order problem in many placesduring 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 tothe Counsel appearing for Tamil Nadu Government :

1. Why is the Tamil NaduGovernment invoking religious sentiments in this

Jallikattu

case ?. 2. What would be their stand in the

Rama Sethu

case pending before the SupremeCourt ?

The Hindus of India in absolute majority expect the Supreme Court of India not tofunction 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 thedemolition 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 TamilNadu 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 wouldhurt 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 canget hurt by a ban on Jallikattu, the Supreme Court should not fail to take note of the factthat 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 allthe 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 andRama Sethu which is of national and international significance.

If the Government of Tamil Nadu is concerned about the breakdown of law and orderfollowing the Supreme Court's ban on Jallikattu, it should not also ignore the fact thatif the might of the State is deployed for the planned destruction of Rama Sethu, whichhas been in existence for centuries, all the Hindus of India would not hesitate to unite inorder to take the matter to the streets for asserting and claiming their age old Hindurights 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 thehypocrisy of the Tamil Nadu government and the duplicity of Dravidianismthrough the 'Jalli Kattu' controversy. The rationalist Tamil Nadugovernment headed by an Atheist Chief Minister, which questioned thetruth 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 theconduction of Jalli Kattu. While the 'Bull fight' has only cultural traditionand not any religiousness attached to it, the state government hadpresented to the Apex Court that, the Bull fight organized during the Pongalfestival is an ancient traditional sports more than 400 years old and thatthe stopping of such a sport would hurt the 'religious' sentiments of thepeople. The government had requested the SC to lift the stay on the abovegrounds and the Supreme Court had obliged only after laying certainconditions such as, the organizers must obtain permission from the districtCollector, registration must be made, Animal Husbandry officials mustinspect the Bulls, participants must be registered, Medical facilities & presence of Veterinary teams must be ensured, the event must come underthe observation of Animal Welfare Board Members and the event must be video graphed by government media like Doordarshan. The stay was liftedonly late in the afternoon yesterday, but surprisingly the event is 'on' today itself in Alanganallur. One wonders how the District Administration could

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<b>Jallikattu – The fight is now outside the ring</b> Pongal, the harvest festival of Tamil Nadu is also the time for Jallikattu - the traditional bull fight that takes place in Madurai, Tiruchirapalli and Tanjore. Of these the spectacle at Alanganallur, near Madurai, is the most talked about simply because it is the most ferocious. Somehow, there's so much raw energy in the air at the time of Jallikattu. Even a casual visitor can feel the vibes and horror. Whole villages come to a stand-still at the time of this traditional bull fight. It is considered 'veera velayattu', the game of the brave and indeed the game does take immense bravery - to tame a wild bull called the 'Jallikatu Kalai'. The game involves taming the bull, by locking its horns and getting it to stand still for a short while. The person, who does so, gets the purse or whatever gift the brave one is destined to receive. Today, there is a huge hue and cry to ban this traditional sport that animal rights activists have branded a vile blood sport. True, not only do the bulls that enter the Jallikattu ring suffer a blood bath, some of the participants, often little children do end up in hospital and often in the morgue. So they say there’s no reason why the sport should be banned forthwith. What is your opinion? Vote here to RUN or BAN – http://www.jallikatu.com <a href="http://www.jallikatu.com">This is a link</a>

reply01 / 08 / 2009