KAKINADA: It was a free-for-all for organisers of traditional cockfights and gambling games — playing cards, the Gundata-cutting cards game — in two Godavari districts during the three-day Sankranti festival. The police warning that these traditional activities would not be allowed in view of court directives went unheeded.
In the run-up to Sankranti, the police created a stir and filed bound-over cases against many; ploughing the fields where cockfights are organised, and in general creating an atmosphere of fear. This did not help.
Cockfights were organised in remote villages in the two Godavari districts and crores of rupees changed hands. To make things more exciting, record dances were also held in some places.
Initially, many organisers were skeptical of the events this time due to the Covid-19 scare and the vigorous police campaign against these. But, the first day of the Sankranti season, on Bhogi Day, some big organisers of cockfights initiated the…