Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in an exclusive interview to a private Tamil news channel lied without an iota of hesitation stating that the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by the Congress never banned Jallikattu.
The Wayanad MP was answering to a question posed regarding Jallikattu and the UPA government’s ban on the sport.
“One might ask.. you speak about Jallikattu, you take witness that sport, but the very sport was banned during the UPA time”, the interviewer asks to which Rahul Gandhi shakes his head sideways and says “We didn’t ban it. One of our ministers commented on it. But we did not ban Jallikattu.”
He further goes on to look at people behind the camera to seek validation and says “We did not ban Jallikattu”.
The interviewer points out to the fact that Dr. Manmohan Singh in a letter called it a cruel sport to which Rahul Gandhi goes on to narrate how he saw Jallikattu with his own eyes where there was protection for the bull and people.
“I did not see the so-called brutality of Jallikattu. I did not see it.” he said adding that if at all there exists a danger it is to the people and not the bull.
He also said that there is a possibility of harming the bull if Jallikattu is conducted without proper infrastructure and support. “So, the answer is to make the sport safe. Make the sport safe for the bull, make the sport safe for the people and enjoy the sport and drama in respecting both the bull and the people.”, Rahul Gandhi said evading the question on Dr. Manmohan Singh’s letter against Jallikattu.
The interviewer further probed stating that the then Minister of Environment had brought the bull under the list of animals prohibited from exhibition to which Rahul said “I am not of the view where every single person in the Congress party has to have the same view on something. I have my view. I represent a big chunk of the ideas of the Congress party. I think that Jallikattu can be done safely, humanely, in a pleasant way. So I don’t see the problem”.
It is to be noted that the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) showed great interest in banning Jallikattu. In fact, on December 15, 2015, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote a letter to the Human Society International, an organization similar to PETA, voicing his strong opposition to Jallikattu. Not only did he say that this most ‘horrible’ form of entertainment be not promoted, but he also wished the organization success in their goal of banning it.
Many United Progressive Alliance ministers, including Jairam Ramesh, called it a barbaric sport. In fact, it was during his stint as the Environment Minister that he banned Jallikattu by adding bull to the list of animals prohibited for ‘performance’. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, another spokesperson of the Congress, appeared as an advocate for the petitioners seeking a ban on Jallikattu, and openly stated that Jallikattu was a ‘horrible’ sport.
Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor back in 2015 called Jallikattu as cruel.
Former Congress Minister Jayanthi Natarajan too speaking to a Tamil TV channel conceded that Congress was responsible for Jallikattu ban.
In January 2017, when the pro-Jallikattu protests was taking the state by storm, National Herald, the mouthpiece of the Congress, published an article criticizing the protests in a slanderous manner saying that Tamil men used the protests to ‘assert their manhood’ after feeling emasculated under the iron-fist rule of later former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa.
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