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N Sathiya Moorthy in Chennai
In a bizarre political development, P K Deivasigamani and S K Ramaswamy Gounder, leaders of the Kongu-Vellalar Farmers Association in the western Coimbatore-Erode belt of Tamil Nadu, have offered themselves for a public whiplashing at the hands of community voters for campaigning for state Finance Minister C Ponnaiyan in last year's assembly polls.
The community is also serious about executing it, though the police already intervened to stall the process.
The two farm leaders conceded at an association meeting recently that Ponnaiyan had not lived up to the promises made during last year's elections when he contested from native Thiruchengode assembly constituency.
He allegedly did not visit the area after becoming a minister in the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's government 18 months ago.
According to the farmers from the Cauvery canal-irrigated areas in the district, Ponnaiyan, a Kongu Vellalar, commonly known as Gounders, had promised regular supply of water for raising two crops a year.
They complain that Ponnaiyan had been 'insensitive' to their problems when he was minister in the M G Ramachandran government, so they did not take his promises seriously, but still respected the words of their community leaders.
"While lack of rains and Karnataka government's refusal to release water may have come in between, neither last year, nor in the recent weeks, when the storage level in the Mettur reservoir has gone up, has the government released water for our crops. To them, the Thanjavur delta downstream alone counts when they talk about the Cauvery-irrigated lands," the farmers complain.
Though the Deivasigamani and Ramaswamy Gounder are serious on facing the whip lashing, the police have intervened to stop the 'barbaric idea'.
Namakkal District Superintendent of Police H S Jayaraman said, "Whiplashing is banned under the law, and cannot be allowed now."
The Komarapalayam Kongu Vellalar Community Hall management has also denied them the premises for the 'whip-lashing ceremony', slated for November 17.
The farmers say the management had been pressured not to let out the premises to them.
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