TN Farmers Suspend Stir to Join DMK Protest, Give 30 Days to CM To Meet Demands

NEW DELHI: After 41 long days, the Tamil Nadu farmers camping in Delhi have called off their agitation. This was after assurances from TN Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palanisami, and an appeal from DMK working president M.K.Stalin to suspend the protest and join the state wide general strike called by his party on April 25.

The farmers plan to resume the agitation on May 25 if there is no action on their long pending demands.

P. Ayyakannu, president of the National-South Indian Rivers Linking Farmers Association, who is also leading the protest told The Citizen, “we are calling off the protest till May 25 as we have assurances from our Chief Minister to redress our grievances and also to join the state wide general strike on 25 April by the opposition political parties of TN”. Ayyakannu further said, “If our demands are not met, we will start our protest again after May 25. We will leave today if we get tickets,”

CM Palanisami visited the Jantar Mantar venue of the protest, and sat with the farmers for 20 minutes. He said, “We will try to cut down the unnecessary expenses and make arrangements...I will take up the farmer's demands to the Prime Minister...We urge the farmers to end their protest" .

He added, “We had even submitted a memorandum comprising various demands from the state during my previous meeting with the PM.”

The debt driven farmers from the drought hit state of Tamil Nadu began their agitation on March 14 pressing for waiver of loans from nationalised banks; revised drought relief packages; fixture of fair and profitable prices for agricultural produce; interlinking of the rivers and the formation of a Cauvery Management Board.

The Centre has been insisting that the farmers should take up their issues with the state government. Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu, while visiting to Chennai over the weekend, said as much in a statement that reflected his lack of understanding on the issues being raised by the protesting farmers. As many of the demands such as waiver of loans from the nationalised banks, fair and profitable price for agricultural produce, formation of Cauvery Water Management Board and interlinking of rivers are under the jurisdiction of the central government and not with the Tamil Nadu government. This passing the buck as it were, is being seen by the farmers here as a reflection of New Delhi’s disinterest.

Though the distressed farmers have intensified their protests by sitting on dharna in Delhi, there seems to be no consensus amongst the political parties in Tamil Nadu about their demands. All are set to milk the issue politically, but there seems to be little on the ground to suggest even a movements towards sustained action.

The DMK has called for a one day strike on April 25 to support the farmers. However, a preparatory meeting called by the party did not get a positive response from Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) who did not attend. The ruling AIADMK and BJP stayed away and perhaps it is significant that the CM met the farmers in Delhi only after the DMK announced the one day protest program.The Congress CPI(M), CPI, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi(VCK), Indian Union Muslim Laegue(IUML) and some other groups will join the strike.

Significantly, according to the farmers the centre has not been responding positive to the state government that had demanded a drought relief package of 40,000 crore, but Delhi sanctioned just Rs 1,712 crore under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) for Tamil Nadu. “It is a just tokenism which cannot resolve the magnitude of damage caused by drought and cyclone. We are facing a severe drought and more than hundred farmers committed suicide. our 29 lakh hectare in Cauvery delta has gone barren and dry. We demand revised drought relief package from the centre” the farmers told The Citizen.

During the long spell of protest, the farmers met political leaders across the political spectrum including the President of India, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, finance minister Arun Jaitley, water resources minister Uma Bharti, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh, and others. Civil society groups, veteran actors and farmer associations from UP, Punjab, Haryana and other states showed their support.

Over the past 40 days, the protesting farmers grabbed the attention of the media by their novel, unconventional, protests to communicate their desperation. The first day began with marching towards PM’s house on the race course road. This was followed with tattoos of Namam(cheated one) on their bodies, wearing of skulls of the dead farmers, small skits on their plight,a mock funeral, eating food off the dusty road, holding mice and snakes on their mouths, tonsuring their heads, shaving of half their moustaches and hair, posturing half naked, sitting with begging bowls in their hands, acting like insane persons, rolling down naked in front of the Prime Minister’s office, shedding their blood by slashing their fingers, whipping their bodies, writing their demands as slogans on their bodies, wearing sarees, emulating suicide and eating grass and hay stock.

On the 40th day of the protest they drank their own urine after collecting it in a bottle.

The farmers said, “No water to drink in Tamil Nadu, and PM Modi has been ignoring our thirst. So, we will have to quench our thirst with our own urine.”

This was stopped by the Delhi police. For the next day they had planned to eat human excreta, but the stir was fortuately called off, even if temporarily, after the visit of the TN Chief Minister.