The year was 2015 and winter was slowly settling in. However, election heat could be clearly felt in Bihar during that month of November. It was then that an unfortunate event rocked the nation and became hot topic of TV debates. A man was killed in a ruckus by a mob because of alleged consumption of beef.
What followed next was a beeline of politicians visiting Dadri village and politicizing the events. Awards were returned and beef festivals were organized in places as far off as Kashmir and Kerela. Conflicting narratives were built and debated on communal lines and right to eat anything one wishes to was strongly advocated. Nevertheless, the Bihar elections got over as scheduled and all concerns were rugged under the carpet as fast as they were popped up before. Everything was hunky dory once again.
It has been just more than a year and the discussion has now shifted from consuming cattle’s to saving them. The matter albeit is quite different and age old Tamil tradition of ‘Jallikattu’ is now at the center of it. All those lining up with plates for a bite of beef in solidarity with the incident last November, are now taking higher moral grounds with animal activism. The stinking contrast between the two events seems to be lost in commotion. The strong urge to be against the politically ‘right’ is also restricting many to even be literally ‘right’.
Many people are opposing Jallikattu just for the sake of it. Most of them are either misinformed or influenced by propaganda is being spread through videos that are either doctored or are a decade older. ‘Jallikattu’, a festival linked with taming of bulls was banned in 2014 by honorable Supreme Court following pleas by PETA and other animal rights organization. The tradition continued with added regulations through consecutive government notifications but seems to have hit a roadblock this year. It seems like 2017 Pongal won’t witness Jallikattu events as part of annual harvest festival.
In a nation that is one of the top exporters of beef, it seems highly contrasting to restrict a centuries old tradition on the flimsy grounds of ostensible animal cruelty, which even if happened years ago has now been dealt with. It must be known that bulls for this event are exclusively bred and brought up with specialized care, mostly in temples. These are very high maintenance bulls and the practice contributes heavily towards protecting native breeds. It is mandatory to keep Jallikattu bulls completely untamed till the time they participate in the event. Afterwards they are used for breeding.
The problem with this ban or we can say that with many of such pleas is that it deals only with half of the problem. Many times it becomes more like those Facebook posts that has picture of an ailing child and people like it in hope that they are donating dollars for every like. It plays with humanitarian chord of the general public and yields nothing in return. Saving bulls from Jallikattu and pushing them into slaughter houses sounds even worse.
With ban on the event the prices of such bulls have dropped drastically and many owners would be forced to sell them to slaughter houses for as less as base prices.
Indeed how a slaughter house isn’t cruel but a traditional event of bull taming is, remains a mystery.
