After CM Palanisamy talk, Tamil Nadu farmers suspend stir till May 25

“The Chief Minister and the Union Finance Minister have the power to take a call on our demands. We have decided to call off the agitation for a period of one month based on the assurances given by our Chief Minister,” farmers’ leader Ayyakkannu told reporters. “If the promises are not met, we would resume the protest in the national capital in a bigger way on May 25,” he said. 

Ayyakkannu said the decision was taken also based on the assurances given by Leader of Opposition in the Assembly MK Stalin, MDMK’s Premalatha Vijayakanth, Tamil Maanila Congress Chief GK Vasan and BJP’s Pon Radhakrishnan. The farmers, who have been staging a protest for the past 41 days demanding a Rs 40,000 crore drought relief package, farm loan waiver and setting up of the Cauvery Management Board, had earlier refused to end their agitation despite requests by several Union and state ministers apart from leaders regional political parties. 

“We will be leaving for home today or tomorrow and we will be taking part in a state-wide bandh on April 25,” said Ayyakkannu. Palanisamy, who took part in a Niti Aayog meeting here on Sunday, said he had submitted a memorandum containing demands of the farmers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Among other issues, we also raised the farmers’ issue in the meeting with the Prime Minister,” Palanisamy told reporters here. Calling the agitation a ‘success’, Ayyakkannu said the Centre had ‘undermined us and meted out step-motherly treatment’. 

“However, the agitation has become a success and has caught the attention of people across the world. We received support from youth and farmers across the country,” he said. During the course of the protest, the farmers had turned to increasingly desperate measures to draw attention to their issues. They had shaved their heads and half their moustaches and kept mice and snakes in their mouths, conducted mock funerals, flogged themselves and even carried skulls which they claimed were of farmers who had committed suicide due to debt pressure.