It is official now. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam told the legislative Assembly on Friday that anti-national and anti-social forces were behind the Jallikkattu agitation witnessed by the State last week.
“The demonstrators wanted to bring disrepute to Tamil Nadu by disrupting the Republic Day. They had plans to hoist black flags on Republic Day and this was foiled because of the intervention of police,” said the Chief Minister while giving a detailed statement in the House in response to a calling attention motion moved by leader of the Opposition and DMK working president MK Stalin.
The Pioneer had reported last week itself that the Jallikkattu agitation had been hijacked by anti-national and anti-social elements. The demonstrators had displayed placards bearing pictures of Osama bin laden, Veluppillai Prabhakaran and assassins of Rajiv Gandhi while demanding the secession of Tamil Nadu from India during the Marina Beach demonstration.
“Some organisations which infiltrated into the Jallikkattu agitation wanted to slowly divert the focus of the protest. They wanted to show black flags and create problems on January 26. Some even raised separate Tamil Nadu slogans and there is enough photographic proof of larger than life pictures of Osama bin laden being waved during the demonstration. Anti-India slogans too were raised during the agitation,” said Panneerselvam.
Giving a graphic account of the events which led to the January 23 incidents, the chief minister said the demonstrations were by and large peaceful. “The Tamil Nadu government kept the demonstrators informed about the actions being taken to make Jallikkattu legal in the State by promulgating ordinance and unanimously passing the Act. But a section of the demonstrators were bent upon creating problems,” he said.
The chief minister said a section of the crowd which had stationed at Marina Beach threw petrol bombs at the policemen on duty and tried to set a police station building on fire. Many vehicles were set ablaze and the police had to use minimum force to disperse the violent mob,” said Panneerselvam.
But Stalin, who led the DMK members to stage a walk out later told reporters that he was not happy with the statement made by the chief minister. “The demonstrators were not given sufficient time to discuss with each other the legality of the ordinance or the Act passed by the assembly,” charged Stalin.
In an interesting development, deputy police commissioner Balakrishnan who led the police team at Marina Beach told a TV channel on Friday that the agitators were given sufficient time to go through the ordinance and the Act. “But each time they objected to the ordinance by telling that it was not properly signed or they needed more time to discuss with their leaders. The Act was passed on January 21 and by January 23 the whole state was convinced about the intention of the government. In spite of this, the demonstrators refused to leave the Beach,” he said.