Chennai: Agreeing with actor Kamal Haasan that the mass protest for jallikattu was a symbol of discontent among the Tamils, former Judge of Madras high court, Justice D. Hariparanthaman said the government not only mishandled the pre-protest festering thereby causing the outburst but also messed up the widespread agitation, particularly the Marina upsurge.
"The government would not have passed the Bill (to allow jallikattu) without this mass movement of students and youth. And then, they (government) did not give time and opportunity for the agitating youth to celebrate their success while Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam hurried to Madurai to conduct jallikattu", Justice Hariparanthaman told Deccan Chronicle.
The government and the police mishandled the situation at Marina on Monday, resulting in violence spilling on to the streets, he said. "How could the CM conduct the jallikattu within 12 hours of the ordinance being promulgated?" he wondered, adding that the ordinance itself was issued in great hurry after fast-tracking the approvals from the ministries of Home, Environment and Law, besides the President and the Governor.
The retired judge, who had passed several landmark orders during his tenure in the high court, said the "chaos and confusion" among the protesters following the promulgation of the ordinance on Saturday could have been avoided if only the copies of the ordinance were circulated through the media to the protesters and legal luminaries. On the other hand, government chose to keep the ordinance a secret and the lack of transparency led to all the chaos confusion, he said.
