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No More Protest Allowed At Marina Beach, Says Chennai Police
Written by J Sam Daniel Stalin | Updated: Jan 29, 2017 17:11 IST
Chennai: Amid reports that youngsters are planning to congregate along Chennai's Marina Beach yet again to protest against what they call "recent police excess", Chennai Police has invoked prohibitory orders along the shoreline. The order prohibits assembly, protests or fasts in the beach area. Additional Commissioner (South) Shankar said "there would be no restriction for walkers and families coming to the beach".
"For more than a decade, protests, demonstrations, agitations etc. have been totally banned in the entire stretch of the Marina beach, commencing from Light House to Napier Bridge," the police said, citing a court order.
The development comes days after Chennai witnessed massive violence when the police evicted students off Marina beach stretch to clear the place for the Republic Day celebrations. Despite the state government bringing in an ordinance, the students continued their protest and demanded a permanent solution to the Jallikattu issue in the form of an amendment to the Prevention of Animal Cruelty Act in the Parliament.
While the police blamed anti-social elements for the violence, several videos of police officials purportedly torching vehicles, ransacking properties, and attacking people went viral on social media. More than 100 policemen suffered injuries and around 200 people have already been arrested.
Chennai Police Commissioner S George - who initially described the videos as "morphed" - said that the cyber wing is investigating the matter and action would be taken if the videos are found to be genuine.The 2017 pro-jallikattu protests, also known as the pro-jallikattu movement or Thai Puratchi,[8][9] refers to numerous leaderless apolitical youth groups protesting in January 2017 in large groups in several locations across the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, with some sporadic smaller protests taking place across India,[10] as well as overseas.[11][12] The chief motivation of the protest was against the Supreme Court's order to ban jallikattu (occasionally also known as sallikattu, eru taluval, or manju virattu),[13] a traditional Tamil bull taming sport,[14] which is held during Pongal, a harvest festival in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. The sport is conducted annually on the second day of the Tamil month Thai. The sport was banned by the Supreme Court in a decision citing cruelty to animals based on a lawsuit filed by the animal rights activists group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA),[15] which asserted that the tradition violates the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act (PCA).[16]
2017 pro-jallikattu protests
MarinaProtests1.jpg
Pro-Jallikattu protesters gathering at Chennai Marina Beach
Date 8 January 2017 – 23 January 2017[1]
(15 days)
Location Tamil Nadu, India
Caused by Supreme Court's ban against jallikattu
Goals
Revoke the ban on jallikattu
Ban PETA[2]
Methods picketing, sloganeering, human chain,[3] silent protest, hunger strike, demonstration, internet activism, candlelight vigil[4]
Resulted in Tamil Nadu state legislation passed legalising jallikattu[5]
Number
1 million[6]
Casualties
Injuries > 60 [7]
The first large protests occurred on 8 January 2017, when several groups, organised largely via social media, conducted a protest at the Marina beach in Chennai to revoke the ban on jallikattu which was imposed in 2014. These groups also demanded that PETA be banned from India.[17] The protests soon gained momentum and spread all over Tamil Nadu.[18] After several days of protests, jallikattu was finally legalised locally on 23 January when the Government of Tamil Nadu passed a bill to amend the PCA Act.[19] As the legalisation is not Indian federal law, but rather state law, there is concern from Indian legal experts that jallikattu could be banned once again by the Supreme Court.[20][21]
The largely peaceful nature of the protests received praise from all over the country and inspired the legalisation movements of several other Indian states' traditional outlawed celebrations.[22][23] Despite violence on 23 January, this perception continued after the Tamil Nadu Police[24] reported that the violence was caused by "anti-social elements" co-opting the protest, and not the student protesters themselves.[25][vague][26][27][28] The movement has been described as a symbol for Tamil pride and has largely been compared to the anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu and dubbed by many as 'Thai Puratchi'.[29][30]
More than 30,000 Tamilians, mostly students, had been protesting at Marina beach for a week starting January 17 and demanded a lift the ban on the bull-taming sport of Jallikattu.CHENNAI: Marina Beach in Chennai was deserted on Tuesday evening after a #Marina2.0 hashtag started trending on social media forcing the city police to be up on their feet to thwart any sort of gathering given the experience of the mass students uprising for jallikattu in January.Deputy commissioner of Mylapore V Balakrishnan told TOI that such rumours affected the normal life of the public visiting the beach and those running shops. "Those spreading such unnecessary rumours will face legal action," he said.
Debt-ridden and drought-hit Tamil Nadu farmers have been protesting at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi since mid-March, in different ways, to draw attention to their plight.
