Any kind of agitation over public issues may get listless and lead to ennui after some time. Agitations being staged in Tamil Nadu against the Centre’s failure in constituting the Cauvery Management Board too are no different.
The week saw two bundhs (general shutdown) in the State (on Tuesday and Thursday) for which calls were given by various farmers’ associations and the main opposition parties. After Thursday’s shutdown, the farmers in the Cauvery Delta (encompassing the districts of Tiruchirappalli, Thiruvarur and Nagapattinam) came out with a novel method of protest to sustain public interest and enthusiasm.
The hero of Friday’s agitation was Ponnusamy Ayyakkannu, president, Farmers’ Association for South Indian River linking who had created a sensation in New Delhi last year by staging different kinds of protest demonstrations for almost two months. The streaking held by Ayyakkannu and his colleagues in New Delhi’s lok Kalyan Marg to draw the attention of the highest official in the country had attracted wide attention. Team Ayyakkannu had also eaten rice straight from the ground, uncooked dead rats and even held a symbolic mass suicide. His demand was that the Centre should declare compensation to the farmers in Tamil Nadu who suffered crop loss due to drought and floods. Congress President Rahul Gandhi had expressed solidarity with Ayyakkannu and his colleagues.
But on Friday, Ayyakkannu chose an entirely new concept hitherto unheard of in Tamil Nadu. Ayyakkannu, whom his rivals accuse of owning swanky cars and bungalows, went to Cauvery River in a procession and laid down on the sand bank as corpses under the scorching sun.
His supporters had dressed him up and others as dead bodies by giving a sufficient coat of holy ash, garlands made of rose and marigold and paste of turmeric powder. To add seriousness to the agitation, they were covered with skulls and skeletons collected from the banks of Cauvery. “These are all skeletons of farmers who committed suicide,” said Ayyakkannu.
Before turning into a corpse, Ayyakkannu blamed the Centre as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi for cheating the people of Tamil Nadu. “The BJP needs vote in Karnataka. Hence they denied Cauvery water to people in Tamil Nadu. This is gross injustice and God will punish all those who are discriminating against the people of Tamil Nadu,” said Ayyakkannu. Hundreds of onlookers joined the agitation by standing near the “dead bodies” and giving out a mass wailing for the “departed souls”.
Speaking to The Pioneer over telephone from Tiruchorappalli, Ayyakkanu said he would come up with series of novel protest marches in days to come to press the Centre to implement the court order. “Agitations should catch the attention of the people. There is no use in causing traffic snarls and road blocks which always hurt the poor people,” said Ayyakkannu justifying his kind of agitation.