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Agitation is political, not personal, says Jayalalitha

Condemning Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi for trying to give a personal colouring to what, Jayalalitha said, was a political agitation, the AIADMK supremo reiterated that the protests would highlight the plight of farmers under the DMK regime.

She pointed out that the AIADMK executive had announced, as early as April 15, that the party would protest the anti-farmer policies of the state government. It was therefore inaccurate to say that the special order, which was passed much later, had anything to do with it.

The chief minister, and a section of the media, were trying to create a false impression that the AIADMK planned the agitation after the attachment orders were passed, she charged.

Jayalalitha took strong exception to Karunanidhi's description of the walkout by the AIADMK MPs in Parliament demanding the dismissal of the DMK government as "a good joke". On the contrary, she said, the chief minister continuing in office after first declaring that there was no attempt on the life of Federal Home Minister L K Advani on February 15 when Coimbatore was rocked by serial blasts, and later admitting in the white paper tabled in the state assembly that there were six human bombs targetting Advani's life, was the real joke.

Referring to the plight of farmers which, she pointed out, was the real reason for her party's planned agitation, Jayalalitha said that poor power supply and remunerative prices for paddy had hit the farming community badly. To make it worse, the state government had initiated distraint proceedings against them, she said. Further, the DMK's poll promise of procurement price of Rs 1,000 per tonne of sugarcane had not been implemented, she argued.

She said that the state government's move to credit land tax collected from the farmers till February, after first announcing that land tax would be waived this year, was nothing more than an attempt to hoodwink the farming community.

Further, she said, the Thanjavur district region in the Cauvery delta was turning dry because the state government had made no steps to procure Cauvery water from neighbouring Karnataka.

These, she said, were the reasons underlying the party's planned protests.

UNI

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