Jallikattu ban controversy: Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan calls it an attack on Dravidian culture

Power star Pawan Kalyan, the chief of Jana Sena party, has opened up on the controversy surrounding the ban on Jallikattu. He described it as an attack by the government on the culture of "Dakshin Bharath".

Besides raising social issues in his public speeches, Pawan Kalyan is of late using Twitter to convey his opinions to people. On Friday morning, the actor-turned-politician tweeted his views on the ban on Jallikattu. He attacked the government of India for this ban, and wrote, "I have deep respect & reverence for our Culture,Animals and Mother Nature."

Later, he posted a few photos that showed him taking part in farming activities. He posted another photo featuring him at his farm with some cows in the background. He wrote: "The calf n cow in the background are from my personal 'Goshala' of 16 plus cows n calves. Looking at the cows & roosters in my farm made me to think about the Ban of #jallikattu & #kodipandem in Dakshin Bharath."

Pawan Kalyan then criticised the central government in a series of tweets. He posted: "Ban on #'Jallikattu' & #'Kodipandem' by Govt of India is an Attack on #Dravida Culture and its integrity; This is how it is being viewed in Dakshin Hindustan. I had observed this 'deep hurt' in people of 'Dakshin Bharat' while I was shooting in Pollachi (Tamilnadu) and during my political interactions in Andhra about the bane of their respective cultureal events in recent times."

"Govt of India cited 'Animal Cruelty' as the reason for the ban of 'Jallikattu and Kodipandem'. If we truly consider this puritanical approach then we have to examine the statistics of #Indian Beed export & Indian poultry industry.

"India is the largest exporter of Beef in the world; 2.4 Million tonnes of Beef & Veal exported by India in 2015, where as Brazil and Australia could export only 1 and 1.5 million tonnes. And beef exports fetches almost $5 Billion with 14 percent growth rate every year. And interestingly these top beef exporting firms are owned by Hindus and not muslims," he posted.

The actor continued: "Calves and Buffaloes should be slaughtered to get 2.4 million tonnes of Beef. How come this of slaughtering does not attract Animal Cruelty? Just because we don't see it!! Why the Animal cruelty act applied only to #Jallikattu, where the animals getting injured or killed is insignificant when compared to amount of animanls that to be slaughtered for business.

"The same Animal cruelty act was applied to Ban #Kodipandaem, which has deep religius significance associated with Lord Kukkuteswara (form of Shiva who came as a Rooster to kill an asura called 'Gayasura').

"#Kodipandem is the cultural identity of 'Andhras'; if the Central Govt is serious about enforcing 'Animal Cruelty Act' then they should Ban 'Poultry industrty' also; which produces around 8.4 lakhs tons of poultry meat by killing millions of chicken.

"Somewhere we have to draw a line for this 'Moralistic Madness' in our Sociently; otherwise it would be very difficult to keep our nationan's integrity intact. #JanaSena urges Central Govt to lift the Ban on #Jallikatty and #Kodipandem. Jai Hind!! [SIC]"