Tamil Nadu’s economy under threat from protests?

What has also gained instant support is the agitation at Rameswaram where the death of fisherman Britjo has resulted in 15,000 protesting at Rameswaram.  

According to NJ Bose of the Tamil Nadu Seagoing Mechanized Vessels Association, “Daily loss due to fishermen keeping away from the sea amounted to Rs 3 crore.” 

At Neduvasal, opposition to the Centre’s move to extract hydro carbon had resulted in people, mostly farmers and agricultural labourers protesting at three different sites for the 21st day, on Wednesday. Cops claimed that over 10,000 were involved. 

Meanwhile, protests in Chennai were mainly confined to the Marina beach and was largely peaceful until towards the end when it began spilling to the streets, even leading to complete shutdown for a day. At Tirunelveli, the agitation following the high court verdict favouring multi-national soft drink giants went on for several days. Those involved were students, lawyers, NGOs and social activists. 

According to social activist and lawyer Karthikeyan, the local economy has not been affected much in rural protests as participants are only villagers from 10 surrounding villages who fear that once allowed ingress, they will also lose their land. 

“Pudukottai district has around 10,000 big shops and an equal number of smaller establishments all of which downed shutters for a day in support of the agitating farmers leading to a loss of Rs 100 crore,” according to R Sampath Kumar, additional secretary, Pudukottai chamber of commerce.  

While protests against unpopular schemes have been welcomed by the public, leaders of the business community claimed that recurrent protests could in the long run be detrimental to the state economy.