Ayyakannu & co to wave black flags at PM over Coimbatore pseudo farmers meet

TIRUCHY: Farmer-leader Ayyakannu has announced that members of their confederation will conduct black-flag protests against Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Coimbatore, accusing him of promoting corporate interests over farmers.

The stir would be conducted across Tamil Nadu on Saturday, November 19, during the PM's Coimbatore visit to inaugurate the organic farming conference. Farmers claimed corporate firms had organised the conference, not the actual farmers.

Speaking to reporters in Tiruchy, leaders of the confederation of farmers' associations said the PM was ridiculing farmers by participating in a farmers' conference without any farmer involvement. PM Modi, who always speaks about how the farmers are the backbone of the country, is selling them out to corporates promoting the genetically modified seeds lobby. “PM Modi has failed to offer profitable pricing for the agricultural products as promised. He is now acting in favour of the corporate firms with his participation in the Coimbatore conference," P Ayyakannu, one of the convenors of the confederation, said.

The farmers also opposed the sanction of Rs 500 crore for genetically modified seeds. “We had been opposing them for a long time. But the union government has come up with another version with Genetically Edited seeds. We consider both are the same and they should be withdrawn,” C Nallasamy, Tamil Nadu Toddy Movement, another convenor of the confederation of farmers' associations, said.

Nallasamy added that the farmers have planned to organise a Toddy conference ahead of the Assembly elections, which would have an impact in the polls.

Meanwhile, a group of farmers led by Ayyakannu has decided to stage a protest in Delhi from November 19 to press their demands.