Tamil Nadu farmers drink urine over delay in drought relief funds

 New Delhi: The desperate Tamil Nadu farmers who have been protesting in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar for 40 days since March 14 has taken a bizarre step by drinking urine on Saturday to make their voices heard.

 

The farmers who were demanding a loan waiver, a revised drought relief package and better support prices for their produce said that if they are still ignored by the Centre, they will be forced to eat human faeces on Sunday.

 

P Ayyakkannu, the state president of the National South-Indian Rivers Linking Farmers’ Association who is leading the protest.“We are not getting water to drink in Tamil Nadu, and PM Modi has been ignoring our thirst. So, we will have to quench our thirst with our own urine.”

 

The farmers has engaged the attention of the national media by performing angapradakshinam, rolling prostrate on the street at Jantar Mantar, staged suicides, conducted mock funerals, shaved off half their moustaches and beards, stripped in front of the Prime Minister’s office, eaten dal and rice off the road, stood with mice in their mouths and have hung skulls around their necks, which they claim belong to farmers in their state who committed suicide because of mounting debt.