CHENNAI: Deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam has requested his party MLAs not to call him ‘jallikattu hero’, because people would mistake him for a
bull tamer and force him into the ring.
It has become a practice for AIADMK MLAs as well as ministers to start their speeches by praising AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran, former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, chief minister
Edappadi K Palaniswami as Kongu Nadu (West Tamil Nadu) gold and
OPS as jallikattu nayagan (hero).
It was in January 2017, when Panneerselvam was chief minister, that jallikattu (bull taming sport) was restarted following a week of massive crowd mobilization on the Marina. Panneerselvam emerged a hero after he secured the Centre’s support for an ordinance to restart jallikattu.
Food minister R Kamaraj, speaking on the achievements of chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami in the
Cauvery issue, referred to Panneerselvam as
jallikattu hero. After Kamaraj’s speech, Panneerselvam said, “I want all my party MLAs to stop praising me as jallikattu hero. In my native district (Theni), jallikattu is being held in several places. If I go to some area where jallikattu is on, people will think that I am a hero in this sport and will push me into the ring. What will happen then?”
This is not the first time that OPS is asking his party MLAs not to praise him. The culture of sycophancy is so deep-rooted in the AIADMK that its MLAs don’t take such requests seriously. They would rather defy their leader’s instruction than stop praising him.
Representative image