Chennai: On a day Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu returned to normal, save for the few odd protesters still camping on the sea coast at Marina beach on Tuesday, actor film maker Kamal Haasan said Jallikattu stir was not just about bull taming sport but encompassed many other issues as well.

“This is not a sudden outburst. It happened because we found a reason. We have always been looking for reasons,” Kamal Haasan said addressing a press conference at his home.

He took serious offence to calling protesters anti-national or anti social and said hundreds of girls and young ladies were present during the day and night and there was not one untoward incident reported from anywhere, either in Chennai or any other place where the students and youth congregated in huge numbers.

The agitation or protesters can be described as anti-national he said just because they were speaking for the cause of Tamil and Tamil Nadu. Many leaders in Tamil Nadu had spoken for and demanded separate Tamil Nadu. “Were they anti-national,” he questioned.

Kamal Haasan spoke of the time when he sneaked into the anti-Hindi agitation, despite his parents disapproval, but that did not make me an anti-national. “It was never about the language but it was against the thrusting of Hindi language on us (Tamilians) and making us illiterates overnight,” he said.

The agitation for Jallikattu was peaceful, dignified and full of character.

It is said that the government failed to communicate to the students properly and the police was hasty and wrong in using undue force to disperse a peaceful protest with such violence. “I should have persuaded the chief minister to come with me to the students protesting at Marina beach, and I did not. For this I apologise, he said holding himself “guilty” for happened.”

“I was invited to come for the stir, but I did not visit the venue as it would amount to taking away their limelight,” Kamal Haasan said. In fact, it was his tweet on this that was taken as guidance by most of the film fraternity that maintained a distance from the protests.

Kamal Haasan took the police to task saying that their actions were shocking. And if the videos of policemen torching vehicles and indulging in arson are true, then it is the most shocking thing to have happened. I hope they are not real policemen who were seen in the video clips that have gone viral, he said.

But politicians jumped with demands for judicial probe and action against erring policemen.

DMK working president MK Stalin demanded a judicial probe and also transfer of Chennai police commissioner S George, whose police force used savage force to beat up the protesters to evict them from the Marina beach.

Chennai police commissioner S George denied all allegations and said that there were some miscreants in the congregation of youth and students. Police had acted only against them, he said.

“We could see some anti-social elements enter through the sea route,” he said addressing a media conference on Monday night to defend the police action. He said that repeated pleas to the protesters to disperse early from morning fell on deaf ears, he said, forcing the police to evict them.

Only minimum force was used, he said.

Something that the entire opposition rejects outright.

PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss demanded a CBI inquiry into the whole affair of policemen indulging in arson and it must be found out why the police acted like this and at whose behest. CPM leader G Ramakrishnan said the government’s refusal to communicate to the students must be investigated. It was this failure that led to the situation that developed and peacefully protesting students were beaten up and tear gassed.