Grain of truth

Sometimes Prakash8217;s father managed to climb trees to bring down coconuts and earned Rs 5. One more rupee and it brought home a kilogram of 8216;kawli8217; broken rice bits 8212; each of the seven members in the family managed half a glass of porridge in the night. But even that was hard to come by.

On that day, both Prakash and Jeevitha swooned near the fields. They were rushed to the local primary health centre. Prakash began vomiting and his father V Chandrashekar carried him to Mannargudi Government Hospital. The hospital wanted money for saline bottles. He brought his son home. Two days later, Prakash died. 8216;8216;Where would I get that kind of money? If I could, my son would not be dead now,8217;8217; Chandrashekar points out. He has five children to feed now. But the bigger blow was yet to come.

8216;8216;Jayalalithaa maintained that the child had died of illness. She was callous enough to ask how come the other children in the family were alive,8217;8217; says R Muthuarasan, the CPI8217;s state secretariat member, based in Thiruthuraipoondi. The government gave Chandrashekar Rs 25,000 to buy two cows and a cart; the money came after five months but the state would not acknowledge that the boy died of starvation.

Subsequently, at least 13 farmers committed suicide in the Cauvery delta district of Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur and Thanjavur, which forms the rice belt of Tamil Nadu. Shanmugham of Palayakkotai hanged himself, driven by a debt of Rs 30,000. K Veeraiyan of Thiruvonam went to the 8216;kola fields8217; and poured pesticide through his ears; he had borrowed Rs 45,000.

Mannargudi8217;s CPI MLA V Sivapunniyam brought up Shanmugham8217;s issue in the Assembly 8212; that was followed by a midnight raid at his house as the police claimed to have seized a copy of the letter left behind by the farmer before he committed suicide.

The next day, Tiruvarur roads were blocked with agitating farmers protesting the action. Even after three years, there8217;s simmering anger against the ruling AIADMK. For the DMK and CPI, allies in this election, the suicide deaths are prime election issues for the constituencies falling within the state8217;s rice bowl. 8216;8216;The Jayalalithaa government kept insisting that 13 farmers had died due to alcoholism, accidents, illness and 8216;8216;suicides arising out of family quarrels. Her stand was ridiculous. Everyone, including her administration, was well aware of the crisis existing then in the delta region. Farmers had no food,8217;8217; Mannargudi candidate Sivapunniyam says. 8216;8216;Children were forbidden from even accepting food from a neighbour. Many families ended up feeding on field rats,8217;8217; adds Mutharasan said, accusing Jayalalithaa of doing precious little to help the farmers overcome the crisis.

Even the much hyped 8216;Uzhavar Paathukaapu8217; launched after her party8217;s debacle in the Lok Sabha election, was only DMK chief Karunanidhi8217;s scheme by a new name.

While a good monsoon last year ensured reasonably good kuruvai and samba harvest and the flood relief works disbursement of Rs 1,000 per household and Rs 3,000 per acre of farm land saw good progress, farmers are still nursing their anger.

When the crisis peaked, Jayalalithaa launched a free noon meal scheme for farmers on Pongal Day in January 2003. But the proud villagers refused to go to the meal centres with plates. Then her government decided to distribute 1 kg rice free every day for three months. 8216;8216;If only she had offered the free rice 10 kg every month that she is promising now, when we were struggling during the drought years, we would have been very grateful to her,8217;8217; points out V Shivanandham.