The death of a 41-year-old man from Fatrade-Varca on Monday reported at a buffalo fight organised in the area has thrown tricky questions after the family of the deceased claimed that the incident took place at their cowshed at Fatrade, and not at any bullfight arena as projected on social media. Nonetheless, the police seem to be on a sticky wicket since an FIR was registered on Tuesday a day after registering the case of unnatural death based on statements given by the family. Surprisingly, the FIR has been registered against an unknown person.
At the heart of the issue is the police role in bullfights because actions of the men in uniform have remained suspect, especially in Salcete's countryside, an area which has been successfully hosting the fights over the years despite the ban. The other side of the bullfight story is that there is a lot of money involved, and there is betting.
Bullfights have been a subject of debate for over two decades, ever since they have been banned under the law for cruelty to animals, with sections of people drawing a parallel to the traditional sport named Jallikattu in Tamil Nadu during the Pongal season. Jallikattu involves releasing a raging bull and participants trying to grab its hump for a prize. The event has been allowed due to its historic, cultural and religious links.
While questions surrounded the death of the Fatrade man, news emerged that a Jallikattu event in one of the districts of Tamil Nadu turned tragic as an 11-year-old boy and another man in his 30s were gored to death and 42 others were injured as the bull went berserk.
Whether it is bullfights or buffalo fights there has been a huge question mark over the safety of people witnessing the fights since these are not organised with safety protocols in mind, and there are no arrangements to attend to emergencies. Police feigning ignorance of bullfights, despite the attendance of a large crowd, is a reasonable indicator of how the system works.
The moot question is not whether the Fatrade man was gored to death at the cowshed or the arena. Rather, the concern is that as long as bullfights continue to be allowed the way they are being organised, there could be tragedies such as these. We may ask here, who takes the blame then? Police? Organisers? Or the crowd, who attend the fights despite knowing the risks involved and that it is against the law?
While organisers are primarily committing an offence, the failure of police to clamp down takes precedence over everything. There are illegalities and violations happening across Goa, and a consistent failure to police them points to the fact that enforcement is either inefficient or compromised. We would be living in a fool's paradise to believe that the police force is so naive not to understand the intricacies of bullfights when they are held in full view.
The sad part is bullfighting has remained a popular political discourse that has been simultaneously emerging with every election since the past 20-odd years and candidates have leveraged it effectively in their electoral campaigns without diving into the complexities of the issue.
The goring of people is reason enough to expand the scope of the debate on bullfights with an emphasis on safety. Keeping traditions alive may be one side of the spectrum, but there are more serious issues to bullfights that need to sorted. We need to be pragmatic and consider the loss of life ahead of everything else in bullfights.
