Chennai: Over 50,000 Jallikattu supporters gathered on Marina Beach in Chennai, in a week-long demonstration that began on January 17, seeking revocation of a 2014 Supreme Court ban on the bull-taming sport. The crowd soon diverted their anger towards PETA, and accused the non-profit organisation of trying to eliminate Tamil culture and traditional practices.
However, what was surprising was, certain people calling for a completely unrelated ban on companies producing Coca-Cola and Pepsi in Tamil Nadu. A video showing several youngsters smashing bottles of popular soft drinks on a Coimbatore street soon did the rounds on the internet. "We don't need these foreign companies in our country," some people were seen calling out. In a perfect example of how the Jallikattu protests soon turned into a platform for people to bring up issues that have been bothering the state, organisations pitched into the call for ban on soft drinks.
Soon the state's big trade associations - the Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangangalin Permaipu and Tamil Nadu Traders Federation, asked their members to stop selling soft drinks made by multinational companies from March 1. "During the recent protest by students demanding conduct of Jallikattu, youngsters sought a ban on these soft drinks as they draw our groundwater and take the profits outside the country," said Vanigar Sangangalin president AM Vikramraja. Social Media immediately picked up on the call and was flooded with messages saying PETA was funded by multinationals such as the Coca Cola Company and PepsiCo, and that they had an eye on the Indian dairy market.
Syed Hassan, a social worker who was part of the Marina Beach protest, said, "Coca Cola has their own plans of bringing their own milk products in India. They are sponsors of PETA. They even hold some annual events together." Other demands raised by the agitators included a permanent solution to the age-old Cauvery river dispute, and freedom of fishermen captured by Sri Lanka marine troops.
