Second night of pro jallikattu protests at Marina Beach
Posted on: 19/Jan/2017 12:57:22 PM
Marina Beach saw pro jallikattu protesters gathered by the thousands for the second night in a row.
Most of the people were huddled in small and medium sized groups, each group chanting slogans at its own pace. Volunteers who were distributing water and food to the protesters, bikers who did rounds of the beach road carrying banners and posters, musicians who were keeping up the morale of the people, reporters who were trying to capture the mood of the crowd, and of course roving agitators and newcomers, who were trying to work their way around the beach and not miss out on anything.
One such volunteer who was helping with traffic management said, There are five times as many people as there were yesterday, and I’ve been volunteering for three days now. There are no leaders for this campaign, there is no organisation backing us. This is totally spontaneous, and the only reason I’m here is because I want to be a part of it.
While several people have offered to provide food and water on social media, there isn’t any branding of any NGO, company or other organisation, at least outwardly.
Students gathered at the beach said, Around 80 percent of the crowd is students, and we’re here to support them. We are at the protest because we felt inspired and encouraged by the early protesters. Our Tamil culture does not allow women to be outside so late at night. But this is a cause for which all of us have come to lend our support even at such late hours.
Speaking about Chief Minister O. Paneerselvam’s visit to Delhi, the protestors said, Instead of going to Delhi, our political leaders could have come to Marina and addressed us. That would have told us that they support this movement.
