Remember The Helpless Farmers From Tamil Nadu? Their Demands Are Still Not Heard By Govt

The politics and elections in Tamil Nadu is an enigma. Whether it is the state assembly or to the Lok Sabha, polls are fought on local issues. Also, the two main national parties, the BJP, and Congress have failed to make much of an impact it the state which is dominated by the AIADMK and DMK.

Lok Sabha Election 2019 is not different. While the BJP is contesting the Lok Sabha election in Tamil Nadu as an ally of the AIADMK, the Congress has tied up with the DMK.

The state goes to polls on Thursday, April 18 in the second phase of the Lok Sabha Election.

Like most parts of the country, farmers issue and the agrarian crisis is one of the most talked about topics this election season.

For the past couple of years, Tamil Nadu has experienced an acute shortage of the annual monsoon resulting in droughts and repeated crop failures. In Tamil Nadu, according to government figures, 106 farmers and 1,776 farm labourers committed suicides between 2014-17 due to the agrarian distress.

AFP/ FILE

Despite the magnitude of the crisis, it largely went unattended and under-reported outside the state.

It all changed in March 2017 when some 150 framers from across the state took their protests to the national capital. It caught the attention of the media instantly as even seasoned reporters who had seen all kinds of protests at Jantar Mantar had not witnessed anything like that.

The 150 farmers, who represented the nearly 30 lakh distressed farmers Tamil Nadu had come to Delhi with the skulls and bones of their loved ones, who killed themselves due to debt.

AFP/ FILE

To bring the much-needed attention to their plight, the farmers did everything possible from flogging themselves to symbolically hanging themselves and eating grass to dead mice.

While a lot of their actions looked more theatrical, what it achieved was to highlight the crisis, which was not limited to the state. It also inspired farmers from other states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Punjab also to take to the streets and even to the national capital to press for farmer debt relief and better price for their produce.

BCCL

Last month some 111 farmers from Tamil Nadu had announced their plans to contest the election from Varanasi against PM Modi but called it off after a meeting with Amit Shah, who agreed to consider their demands including interlinking of rivers, better price for crops, loan waiver, ban import of GM seeds and pension for farmer above 60 years.

#ITCounts is an Indiatimes initiative to move beyond the noise and the name-calling and focus on issues that really matter to our generation. We aim to be more about migration, pollution, LGBTQ rights, women's issues and healthcare than about Pakistan, political posturing and trolling.

If you have any suggestions/inputs/feedback or advice please hit us up at kabeer.sharma@timesinternet.in