TN Farmers Continue Protests, Hit Themselves With Brooms

After their 40-day protest in Jantar Mantar, farmers from Tamil Nadu to New Delhi for the second round of agitation.

The farmers from Tamil Nadu in their 40-day protest at Delhi, earlier in 2017. 

(Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

Tamil Nadu farmers at Jantar Mantar on Friday staged another unique demonstration by hitting themselves with brooms to depict their "disadvantaged" status.

After their 40-day protest in the national capital earlier in 2017, farmers from Tamil Nadu on Monday returned to Jantar Mantar for a second round of agitation for loan waiver and a drought-relief package.

The farmers continued with their stir for the sixth day and demanded a farm loan waiver, crop insurance for individual farmers and setting up of Cauvery Management Board by the Centre.

"This time we are determined and would even dare to die, instead of being cheated. Rain or sun, our agitation will not stop," declared P Ayyakkannu, who is spearheading the agitation, as around 50 farmers sat on the Jantar Mantar road shouting slogans.

The farmers, who arrived in New Delhi on Sunday, were detained by the police after they tried to stage a demonstration near the Prime Minister’s residence. They will join an indefinite protest after their counterparts, taking part in a ‘Kisan Mukti Yatra’, reach Jantar Mantar on Tuesday.

The farmers are demanding loan waivers, setting up of Cauvery Management Board, crop insurance for individual farmers and remunerative prices for their produce.

They had grabbed eyeballs earlier this year with their innovative, and at times increasingly desperate, modes of protest.

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