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Tamil Nadu

Protesting farmers drink urine

by Editor's Desk April 22, 2017

Jantar Mantar protest takes an erratic turn

@ScribeTricky: The Jantar Mantar protest of the Tamil Nadu farmers, pressing for farm loan waive-off, grabbed eyeballs with their erratic way of protest, took and absurd turn on Saturday as they drank urine in the national capital in their bid to draw the government’s attention towards their plight.

Over past 5 weeks, they have shaved half their moustaches and head, kept rodents and reptiles in their mouth, conducted mock funerals, flogged themselves and carried skulls of other farmers, who had committed suicide due to debt pressure.

The farmers, whose protest entered the 40th day on Saturday, drank urine even as the cops failed to stop them.

Loan waiver apart, a revised drought relief package and better support prices for their produce are among their demands.

Attributing the act to the apathy on part of the central government, leader of the protesting farmers, P Ayyakkannu said that the Union government is not giving us water hence, we are consuming urine. octopus-inc-designing-and-printing

It may be mentioned here that the protesters had on Friday warned they would drink urine if the Centre failed to offer a solution to their issue within a day. They had stripped in front of the prime minister’s office on April 10 to press for their demands.

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April 22, 2017 0 comments

Geopolitical Affairs

Regionalist politics hampering national interests

by TrickyScribe April 14, 2017

written by TrickyScribe

@ScribeAditya: Welcome to the regionalized Indian polity, where limited, selfish interests of political players confined to states could leave national and global interests of the country in jeopardy. With the power to bring down the government at the center, influential regional players could run the country from state capitals. It is a tricky situation the country will soon need to find an answer to.

Here’s a word of caution, before we plunge deeper into the story. Such instances are not necessarily cases of anti-national politics. It is just that petty local politics influence the national interest in a negative way and the occurrences are not tandem with the country’s larger interests and that the damage done is not irreversible.

Weakening India’s position internationally apart, Mamata’s narrow-mindedness over the sharing of Teesta waters has provided ample ammunition to the opposition in Bangladesh. Hasina has done a lot for India and if she were to face a setback in the upcoming 2019 polls, it would definitely be disastrous for India. India has a friend in Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka. What is worrying is that Mamata Banerjee may just make sure that come 2019, the incumbent Bangladesh PM is no longer in power.

Begum Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is virulently anti-India and pro-Pakistan, and will certainly harm India’s security and other interests if it comes to power. India will have a serious concern in its eastern frontier if the BNP were to form the government in 2019.

India needs to push Mamata to yield to the Teesta deal. Mamata should place the national interests before her own political ambitions and act with magnanimity. There, however, are little chances of her doing so, and therein lies a tragedy for India.

It is not just the first time that regional gains have been placed over national interests. Mamata had earlier dethroned the then railway minister Dinesh Trivedi after his party, Trinamool Congress (TMC), took offense to the increase in passenger fare, claiming it was against the party’s values. The fare hike, though marginal, was a brave move from Trivedi and was highly praised across the board, even the railway trade unions, as reformist.

The proposed fare hike aimed at attaining the much-needed revenue boost to the railways to go ahead with its planned maintenance and safety initiatives. It, however, was against TMC chief’s populist politics. She did not want to offer rival CPM in West Bengal an issue to go public with for obvious reasons.

The hike was rolled back, against railways’ interests. Her message: when political interests are paramount, the safety of Indian passengers traveling on trains is a non-issue.

Similarly, India in 2012 voted for the US-sponsored UNHRC resolution against Sri Lanka for war crimes. The geopolitical implication of the act was huge. India ceded whatever diplomatic elbow room it had with the island nation to China, the regional superpower keen on enhancing its military presence in the sub-continent and encircling India with the ‘String of pearls’ strategy that also voted against the resolution. India risked losing an important ally in regional and international fora.

Why did the then Congress-led UPA government vote for something so potentially damaging to the interest of the nation? It had to buy peace with DMK, an important constituent of the ruling political formation. The DMK, with 18 MPs that time, had threatened drastic action if India did not vote for the resolution which accused Sri Lanka of atrocities against Tamils. The DMK’s stand was, however, dictated by its political compulsions at home as a resolution, demanding a separate state for the Tamils of Sri Lanka was proposed by the then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha was also passed unanimously by the Assembly.

Where do the limited interests of the states, precisely of regional political parties, end and national interests begin? There has to be a thick line dividing the two. For long we’ve seen national parties lacking a mindset that focuses the betterment of states. We cannot allow repetition of situations where states disregard the interests of the country. This is more dangerous.

This is not to implicate that all regional parties and leaders are oblivious to the national interests. But in a hypothetical situation, which might turn real given the present spiteful confrontational politics, where state-based parties give primacy to local agenda over issues of national import, things become difficult for the nation.

Now, who draws the line? It is not clear yet. There has to be one although. Political parties must develop a consensus on fundamental issues and create ‘no-go’ areas. It appears herculean given the current state of affairs but parties might be driven to it in the case of a grave crisis.

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April 14, 2017 0 comments

TN cropers vex while others await Baisakhi

by TrickyScribe April 12, 2017

written by TrickyScribe

@ScribeTricky: With the Baisakhi festivity gripping the north-western states, India, still being an agrarian economy, is all set for express gratitude to the Almighty for the bountiful harvest and pray for prosperity and good times in future. Baisakhi is all set to bring political storms this time.

Recent developments in three states, viz. Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have brought the debate on the waiver of farm loans back under the political limelight.

A major issue in this regard still remains unresolved that is the issue of Tamil farmers staging Dharnas and demonstrations for their “needful” demand of loan waiver. A group of farmers, all from Tamil Nadu, has been agitating in New Delhi for a complete waive off their agricultural bank loans citing highly decimated produce for consecutive years.

The almost a month-long agitation took a drastic turn when the demonstrating farmers went naked in front of the Prime Minister’s Office to putting rats in their mouth. They even sat on the road at Jantar Mantar and ate rice off the ground. What a splendid show in a country whose primary profession happens to be cultivation? And how tight the slap was on the Neta-Babu nexus that has led to a situation as pathetic as this?

Eating rice off the ground is a ritual which is observed in temples mostly. It is an act of prayer asking help from the gods. “We flourish in life from nature and now we eat from nature. We have nothing to lose. We will sit here and pray till our death,” said a protesting farmer Thyagarajan.

“Political parties are requesting us to call off our protest because of the way we agitated outside the PMO. We can’t lose hope. We will continue our agitation until our demands are met,” said Ayyakkannu, leader of the farmers.

The farmers have been living near Jantar Mantar for almost a month now. They eat, sleep and bathe at Jantar Mantar. Sick farmers have been sent back home and replaced by others coming in. The farmers, however, claim that they will not budge until the Centre adheres to their demands, which include a complete waiver of farm loans and a drought relief package of Rs 40,000 crore.

Madras High Court had earlier directed the state government to waive all farm loans accessed through cooperative banks, irrespective of the size of the farmer’s landholdings. The court took the view that this classification was arbitrary in the context of loans, and wanted the big farmers to get the write-off benefits too putting an additional burden of Rs 1980.33 crores on the state exchequer. Tamil Nadu had recently released drought relief of about Rs 2,300 crores to farmers, crediting the amount directly into their bank accounts.

Uttar Pradesh

In Uttar Pradesh, the newly-elected BJP government under CM Yogi Adityanath announced on Wednesday last that it would write-off crop loans of up to Rs 1 lakh for about 21.6 million small and marginal farmers.

Maharashtra

In Maharashtra, the Devendra Fadnavis government said it was studying the UP model to see if a similar loan waiver scheme was feasible in the state, after the Opposition vowed to continue agitations till farmers got a reprieve.

RBI’s take

Expressing his displeasure at the spate of loan waiver announcements in different states, Governor, Reserve Bank of India, Urjit Patel on Thursday last said “it would undermine an honest credit culture and impact credit discipline.”
Development economists, however, feel that as long as strong systemic changes are ushered in through which the cost of cultivation is reduced and the price for farm produce is increased, the cycle of farm loan waivers would be inevitable.

Short-term measure

Development economists feel farm loan waivers are short-term measures but are nevertheless necessary in times of severe drought or floods. However, they said that there was a deeper systemic problem that has pushed farmers strongly into the debt cycle.

A former economist at the Madras Institute of Development Studies told TrickyScribe while pleading anonymity the price for farm produce has stagnated over the years. The cost of agricultural inputs, on the contrary, have soared. “Unless the government reduces cost of production and increases agriculture profit, farmers will remain caught in the debt cycle,” he added.

“Unless the government reduces cost of production and increases agriculture profit, farmers will remain caught in the debt cycle,” he added.What kind of Baisakhi do we expect this year? Will it be a Thanksgiving as always or will it become a mockery of the agrarians with celebs performing bhangra and gidda for Page 3 parties?

What kind of Baisakhi do we expect this year? Will it be a Thanksgiving as always or will it become a mockery of the agrarians with celebs performing bhangra and gidda for Page 3 parties?

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April 12, 2017 0 comments