Pitch for TN
Amidst the kaleidoscope of Tamil Nadu’s political landscape, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finds itself entangled in a complex web of identity, ideology, and electoral aspirations.
The group of Tamil Nadu farmers, who have been using different methods of protest in Delhi's Jantar Mantar for the last two months demanding drought relief funds and waiver of agricultural loans, were stopped by Delhi police from drinking their own urine on Saturday. However, before the cops stepped in a few of them had already sneaked a few sips.
The farmers, who had vowed to drink urine and eat faeces if their demands were not made, reconsidered their strategy after the intervention by Delhi Police. They instead decided to collect their urine in a bucket and send it back to their home state.
The farmers declared that the course of their protest will now depend on the outcome of the meeting with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palainsamy on Sunday morning.
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P Ayyakkammu, state president of the National South Indian Rivers linking Farmers Association, who is leading the protest, told The Statesman, “We may not be allowed to drink urine, but nobody can stop us from sending urine collected in the buckets back to our home state. That is our right. “
The protesting farmers claimed that the government was forcing them to resort to such means of protest. They also accused the government of not living up to its assurances and promises. The farmers have been demanding intervention by the Centre to write off their loans from nationalised banks, revise the drought relief package and resolve the drying up of the Tamil Nadu leg of the Cauvery river.
One of the protesting farmers said, “You can understand our plight, we so don’t want to do this, but our decision to drink our urine speaks of our helplessness and desperation. The government is not ready to listen to us and is rather alleging that we are doing it at the behest of someone’s political agenda. If Prime Minister Modi could come and hear us, may be our problems would be resolved .”
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