The curious case of 111 ‘farmers’ who will contest against PM Modi in Varanasi

With India set to exercise its franchise for constituting the 17th Lok Sabha, political parties have also shifted gears to garner support for their political campaigns. In this game of electoral strategy, critical issues have been suffering on hands of different parties. Political exploitation of critical issues has been on a rise over the past few years with political parties fueling their political campaigns by scavenging on the distressed.

On parallel lines, 111 farmers from Tamil Nadu are all set to fill nominations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “About 250 people from here will join these farmers to show their support for the Varanasi election. Tickets on Ganga-Kaveri Express are already booked and we will reach before April 23, the last day for filing nominations,” said P Ayyakannu who is leading the group.

Close scrutiny of this move by the P Ayyakannu led farmer group reveals a different angle to the ‘farmers protest’. Members of Ayyakannu’s farmer groups had earlier arrived in the national capital to protest against the central government under the banner of All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), which was surrounded by the controversy over staged photo operations of the protests and involvement of paid protesters. The ‘protests’ also saw huge involvement from communist groups with many organisations under the AIKSCC being communist by self-admission.

Ayyakannu, who is leading the 111 farmers to Varanasi has not been free from his share of controversies, a self-proclaimed farmer leader, he is a professional lawyer. Hailing from a rich family in Tamil Nadu various allegations over his involvement with the sand mafia in the region have also been levelled. Ayyakannu was in the spotlight after he slapped a lady when she opposed Ayyakannu distributing political pamphlets in a temple, Ayyakannu could also be seen in the video from the scene calling the lady a ‘prostitute’ before hitting her. Former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president E V K S Elangovan coming to the support of Ayyakannu had threatened, BJP national secretary H Raja after he criticized Ayyakannu for his ulterior motives. EVKS had said, “(H raja) cannot move around freely in Tamil Nadu”. 

More questions arise over the financing of these protests; protests involve huge overhead costs involving logistics, travelling and others, even for filing nominations deposit amount of Rs. 25000 is required per candidate. Moreover, this is nothing but a cheap gimmick. If the farmers were serious, they would have nominated one guy from the group and worked for him instead of splitting the votes. SG Suryah summarizes the conundrum in a simple tweet:-

The working group of AIKSCC consists of 20 organizations, simple analysis of the groups involved further clarify the situation. Kisan Sangharsh Samiti an organization in the working group of the All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) was involved in protests against the installation of the Gorakhpur Atomic Power Station. National Alliance for People’s Movements (NAPM), another organization which is part of the working group of (AIKSCC) is linked to Medha Patkar who in the past has led protests against various developmental projects related to irrigation for farming. Which raise serious questions over the intent and sanctity of these ‘protests’ consequently makes a case to be investigated by authorities.

With political parties crossing all lines to forward their political agenda, real farmers are at a major loss, with serious and important issues taking the back seat behind political agenda peddling. Involvement in serial staged protests and opaqueness in funding clearly indicates the weight and authenticity of these protests.