Telugu actor Pawan Kalyan comes out in support of Jallikattu

Amaravati: Telugu film star and Jana Sena party chief K Pawan Kalyan on Friday came out in strong support of Jallikattu and cockfights saying a ban on these two was an "attack on Dravidian culture and integrity" and need to draw a for "moralistic madness".

"I have deep respect and reverence for our culture, animals and mother nature. Looking at the cows and roosters in my farm made me think about the ban on Jallikattu and kodipandem (cock fights) in Dakshin Bharath," he said in a series of tweets on the issue today.

"Somewhere, we have to draw a line for this 'moralistic madness' in our society. Otherwise it would be very difficult to keep our nation's integrity intact. Jana Sena urges the Central government to lift the ban on Jallikattu and Kodipandem," the actor said.

Read: Rajinikanth, Ajith join protest against Jallikattu ban at Nadigar Sangam

"Ban on Jallikattu and Kodipandem is an attack on Dravida culture and its integrity. This is how it is being viewed in Dakshin Hindustan.

"I had observed this deep hurt in people of Dakshin Bharat while I was shooting in Pollachi (Tamil Nadu) and during my political interaction in Andhra about the ban on their respective cultural events in recent times," Kalyan said.

"Government of India cited 'animal cruelty' as the reason for the ban in Jallikattu and kodipandem. If we truly consider this puritanical approach, then we have to examine the statistics of Indian beef export and poultry industry," he said and reeled out statistics.

Read: SC admits Centre's request, not to pass Jallikattu verdict for a week

India was the largest exporter of beef in the world, with 2.4 million tonnes of beef and veal exported in 2015.

"Brazil and Australia could export only 2 and 1.5 million tonnes respectively. And, beef export fetches almost $5 billion with 14 per cent growth rate every year. Interestingly, these top beef exporting firms are owned by Hindus and not Muslims," the film star claimed.

He wondered how "this kind of slaughtering" did not attract animal cruelty "just because we don't see it!!"

Kalyan questioned why the Animal Cruelty Act applied only to Jallikattu where the animals getting injured or killed was insignificant compared to the number of animals that had to be slaughtered for business.

Kodipandem has "deep religious significance" associated with Lord Kukkuteswara, a form of Lord Siva who came as a rooster to kill an asura (demon) called Gayasura, the Jana Sena chief said.

"Kodipandem is the cultural identity of Andhras. If the Central government is serious about enforcing Animal Cruelty Act, then it should ban poultry industry also, which produces around 8.4 lakh tonnes of poultry meat by killing millions of chicken," Kalyan said.