It has been about a month since political leaders made a beeline for Orathur, a hamlet in the outskirts of Ariyalur mourning the death of a son of the soil. Alagar, a 26-year-old farmer who was the breadwinner of the family, had committed suicide unable to bear the humiliation of his tractor being seized after he defaulted on a loan.
“No woman in the country should undergo such suffering and pain. He could not withstand the humiliation meted out to him. We have paid a heavy price,” says Alagar’s wife Akila.
Alagar’s suicide, many believe, is just the tip of the iceberg of a crisis that has been brewing in the State’s agrarian heartland over the past few years. Apart from farmer suicides and harassment of defaulting farmers, uncertain inflow down the Cauvery, vagaries of nature, labour shortage, rising input costs and poor returns for their produce have left the region’s farming community — especially the small and marginal farmers — wondering if agriculture is at all viable.
Adding to the gloom, the threat of methane and shale gas exploration in the river basin has cast a shadow over the farmers’ livelihood resources. Despite political parties’ words of demurral against policies that affect farmers, the real issues seem to have been put on the backburner in the cacophony of competitive politics. In recent decades, farmers have not been able to consolidate themselves as unified voice.
“Delta farmers were a force to reckon with in the past. They tilted the scales towards those who had stood up for them in a bygone era. Now, partisan politics, caste, economic disparity, sub-regional parochialism and the influence of money in the electoral politics has reduced the once-powerful farming community to a pale shadow of its former self,” says Tamil Nadu Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association general secretary Mannargudi S. Ranganathan.
The other major issue confronting the region is the fisherfolk’s plight on the high seas. “Previously, we would be concerned over the quantum of our catch for the day. But now, we fear whether we ourselves will become the catch,” quips S. Vijayaraman, a fisherman from the Akkaraipettai hamlet in Nagapattinam.
Fishermen from Kottaipattinam in Pudukkottai to Poompuhar in Nagapattinam lead a perilous life, uncertain whether they will return home with their catch. Arrests by Sri Lankan forces, and damage to boats and nets are among their chief concerns.
Entrepreneurs and industries in the region do not seem to be in a better situation either.
In Tiruchi, hundreds of ancillary units dependent on public sector major BHEL are staring down the barrel for the past three years due to a variety of problems. The foreign-exchange generating textile units in Karur, meanwhile, are beset with pollution-related woes. For political parties, the region is an important turf. The two major Dravidian parties are almost on an equal footing here, and since the 1960s the party that has bagged the most number of constituencies here has gone on to form the government.
In the Tiruvarur-Nagapattinam belt, the Left parties definitely have a say, though it is a far cry from their heyday in the 1950s and 60s, when they called the shots. The VCK has some pockets of influence in Ariyalur and Nagapattinam districts while the PMK has support bases in Perambalur, Ariyalur and Nagapattinam districts. In 2006, when it went alone, the DMDK had secured an average of about 10,000 votes in many of the constituencies. The alliance arithmetic notwithstanding, the ‘Third Front’ will still require a massive swing in its favour to wrest the region from the Dravidian majors.
If Mutharayars dominate the Tiruchi-Pudukkottai belt then Kallars-Maravars-Agamudayars have a sway in the core delta region and Kongu Vellala Goundars are a force to reckon in Karur. Dalits are spread evenly across the region. But save in certain pockets, in the past they have not voted on caste lines as party affiliations took precedence.
Since the 1960s, the party that has won this region has gone on to form the government
