TN farmers call off protest till May 25
Farmers from Tamil Nadu protesting at Jantar Mantar called off their agitation on Sunday evening, hours after they met state chief minister Edappadi Palaniswami.
“If our demands are not met, we will resume our protest again after May 25. We will leave today if we get tickets,” said Ayyakkannu, a farmer. This leaves the government one month’s time to meet their demands, which includes writing off their loans from nationalised banks and a revised drought relief package.
Over the past 40 days, the farmers have grabbed national attention through novel, and often shocking, forms of protest. They have shaved their heads and half their moustaches, put mice and snakes in their mouths, held mock funerals, flogged themselves, stripped at Raisina Hill, and carried skulls of farmers who committed suicide due to debt pressure. On Saturday, they said they would drink urine but were persuaded not to by the Delhi Police.
Speaking to reporters after the NITI Aayog governing council meet, chief minister Palaniswami said that he discussed the farmers’ plight during the meeting and forwarded their demands to the Prime Minister.
Apart from demands to write off their loans from nationalised banks, the farmers have also demanded a revised drought relief package and to resolve the alleged drying up of the Tamil Nadu leg of the Cauvery river.
During the protest, the farmers met political leaders like Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, finance minister Arun Jaitley, and minister of state for road transport and highways Pon Radhakrishnan, who is Tamil Nadu’s only BJP MP.