Prohibition not now in Tamil Nadu: Minister

Participating in a debate to thank the Governor for his address, DMDK member Parthasarathy wondered why Tamil Nadu should not be a model for other states by implementing prohibition. Responding to the suggestion Natham Viswanathan referred to former Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s speech wherein he had said that our state could not like camphor to be within a burning ring of fire. Implementation was impossible when neighbouring states have not done that. 

He said Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa would implement prohibition immediately if the central government offered to compensate revenue loss which prohibition entailed.

Duraimurugan (DMK) intervening wanted to know whether the government would or would not implement prohibition, to which the minister replied, ‘we will implement prohibition when it is implemented all over India.” MK Stalin (DMK), who joined the debate, thanked the minster for referring to their leader’s views on prohibition and said it would be good if the government followed the same rationale in all other schemes also. 

Yet another issue that triggered a serious debate in the House was the jallikattu with opposition parties demanding a resolution on the matter even as the government slammed DMK and Congress over the ban imposed by the UPA on the sport in 2011. 

Finance Minister O Panneerselvam, also Leader of the House, said Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa was ‘determined’ to take legal steps to hold jallikattu in the state.

Soon after the Question Hour ended, opposition DMK sought to raise the issue but Speaker P Dhanapal denied permission saying the party could speak on the matter while participating in the debate to thank the Governor for his address. 

DMK, led by its Floor Leader M K Stalin, persisted for some time before staging a walk-out. 

CPI(M) and CPI demanded that the government move a resolution in the Assembly urging the Centre to enable conduct of jallikattu even as the Supreme Court had earlier this month stayed a central notification allowing the bull-taming sport to be held coinciding with the Tamil harvest festival of Pongal. MMK, Congress and PMK also batted for jallikattu, but the national party and DMK came under government criticism. 

“Congress and DMK have no right to talk about jallikattu as the UPA government had added bull underperforming animals (thus banning the sport),” Panneerselvam said, but, insisted that it was “well-known” that Jayalalithaa was taking all legal steps to hold the sport.