The recent sights of Chief Minister and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)’s co-coordinator, Edappadi K. Palaniswami entering a field to plant paddy as well as arriving at an event on a bullock cart in Tiruvarur district appears to give the impression of his keenness on donning the role of a “farmer.”
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While giving an interview to a Tamil television channel in mid-January, he drove a tractor on a paddy field in his home district of Salem and this was to reinforce the image of being an agriculturist. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu too praised him for not forgetting his roots. In February, he got organised a mega event on agriculture and agri-marketing in Salem and used the occasion of the event’s organisation to announce that his government would bring in a law to declare the Cauvery delta a protected zone. In no time, he deputed a delegation of his Ministers , officials and other representatives to New Delhi and secured the approval of the Central government. Shortly thereafter, the Assembly too had adopted the legislation banning any new hazardous projects in select regions of the delta.
At Tiruvarur last week, sections of farmers of the Cauvery delta presented the title of “custodian of the Cauvery” to him where he announced around ₹170-crore schemes to be implemented through the Agriculture Department and ₹6,650-crore schemes to be carried out by the Public Works Department (PWD).
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“There is no reason to see any political motive behind his actions,” asserts S. Semmalai, Mettur legislator from the Chief Minister’s district and former Minister. “All along, he has been an agriculturist. He is only reflecting the real picture of his personality, not an imagery,” he points out.
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P.R. Pandian, president of the Tamil Nadu Federation of All Farmers’ Associations, which was also part of the Tiruvarur event to felicitate the Chief Minister, feels that unlike his predecessors such as M.G. Ramachandran, M. Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, Mr Palaniswami has been a “practising farmer” and there is nothing wrong in exhibiting his background. “He is not showing off as a farmer,” he points out. A senior official, who is observing him in close quarters, says the Chief Minister's knowledge of matters concerning the dairy sector, is "amazing."
However, there are critics even among the farming community. K.V. Ilankeeran, president of the federation of farmers’ organisations in the delta, is not impressed with Mr Palaniswami’s attempts to reach out to the community. “If he is genuinely interested about our welfare, he would have gone for loan waiver of all farmers, regardless of landholding size, as directed by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court. But, his government had got the High Court order stayed by the Supreme Court,” he says.
S.Venkatesan, general secretary of the Federation of Tamil Nadu and Pondy State Private Sugarmill Cane Growers’ Associations, wants the Chief Minister to ensure that farmers are paid minimum statutory price for paddy at regulated markets being operated by the Commissionerate of Agricultural Marketing and Agri Business and sugar mills pay their arrears of ₹500 crore to cane farmers, besides announcing an incentive price for sugarcane farmers this year. “It is not enough for him to make symbolic gestures. He should come out with substantive actions too,” Mr Venkatesan adds.
Even though it is too early to say whether Mr. Palaniswami will be able to reap any political dividend out of his outreach initiative, his steps in recent weeks have created an impression that he is assiduously seeking to gain the support of the agriculturists, who, in the last three years, took part in a number of agitations on a variety of issues.
