If Eating Our Feces And Drinking Urine Opens Modi Govt's Eyes, We Will Do That, Say TN Farmers

Cries of the suffering Tamil Nadu farmers seem to be falling on deaf ears. the government at the centre has done nothing for them even after a month of extreme protest in scorching heat in the Capital. ?

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In the over a month period they have been in the national capital, these people have done everything humanly possible to turn some attention on them. This includes protesting in tribal attire with human skulls, eating dead rats and grass, running naked in front of the parliament and even getting flogged by a man wearing a Modi mask.

Reuters

While all these been widely reported, it seems like the one person whom the desperate farmers want to see it all haven't seen it, the one person being Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom these debt-ridden farmers have pitched their hopes, for a loan waiver.

With every passing day, the number of porters in Jantar Mantar is decreasing, not because they have left the movement, but the scorching summer heat is catching up to them.

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According to a volunteer who was with the protesters on Wednesday, so far 64 of the demonstrators have fallen sick and has been since shifted to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

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While their shoulders are down their moral is not...

Ayyakannu, the leader of the protest said they will continue to sit in the hot sun till their demands are met.

"We have been sitting, sleeping and eating on this road. We are suffering under this hot sun. Soon some of us might even suffer sunstroke. We will sit here till our goal is achieved."?

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The group which met Pon Radhakrishnan, the lone Tamil representative in the Modi cabinet last week, have given a two-day ultimatum to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to give a written assurance on loan waiver.

"If PM Modi is still not willing to meet us, we will resort to eating our own faeces and drink our own urine. We will be here till our death, we won't leave."

With Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami scheduled to visit Delhi on Saturday for the GST council meet, the farmers said they will meet him, to put pressure on the Modi government.

On Thursday two porters, Palanichami from Pudukkottai, and Tamilselvan from Tiruchi began an indefinite fast in the same venue, lying on the road which is already blazing hot.

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"Only during the election campaign, political parties speak about farmers. After elections, they treat us like slaves. They have all the money to help big industrialists, but not to help the farmers, who are the backbone of this country," Ayyakannu lamented.?

The lone woman protester

Amongst the nearly 150 people who have been protesting since last month, one person has stood out - Nachamma, a resident of Trichy in her sixties.

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On paper, she can be considered 'rich', as her family owns seven acres of agricultural land. But the years of drought and crop failures meant that they are in debt and her husband is now working as a security guard to make a living. The family had taken a loan to dig a borewell, which also failed as the groundwater levels had shrunk. Nachamma said she even had to sell her 'Mangalya Suthra' to pay off the loan.

Failing crops and livestock

Elangovan, a farmer from Kumbakonam described a bleak picture of the ground reality they face back in Tamil Nadu.?

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"My three consecutive crops have failed. Now I am left with nothing. Since there is no water I cannot cultivate again. It is not just our crops, even our animals are suffering. We don't even have hay to feed our cattle. A lot of cattle, goats and even peacocks have died in my area due to the drought" he said.