How Tamil Nadu political parties have used rice as a political tool
The Hindu
How Tamil Nadu political parties have used rice as a political tool
While Roti, kapada aur makhan (food, clothing and shelter) has been a key slogan of the national parties, in Tamil Nadu it is rice that has been used as a political tool for years.
In the run-up to the 1967 Assembly election, when the State was in the grip of an acute rice shortage, the DMK, then yet to taste power, assured the voters that it would supply three measures of rice (approximately 4.5 kg) at one rupee. The promise evoked scepticism in certain quarters, but struck a chord with the voters. No wonder, the DMK won hands down, ousting the Congress, which could not return to power so far.
On the day the DMK assumed office (March 6, 1967), Congress veteran C. Subramaniam, speaking at a public meeting at Triplicane in Madras, had a piece of advice for the ruling party: It should not, for instance, stick to the impossible promise of three measures of rice for a rupee and work up a quarrel with the Congress government at the Centre. Subramaniam had just then lost in the Lok Sabha election from Gobichettipalayam after steering the country through a difficult phase of back-to-back drought in the mid-1960s and playing a crucial role in the implementation of the Green Revolution as Union Minister for Food and Agriculture.
Sensing practical difficulties in carrying out its assurance, the ruling DMK came out with a modified scheme of providing a measure of rice at ₹1 on an experimental basis in, what they were then called, statutory rationed areas of Chennai and Coimbatore. At the time of the launch of the revised scheme in Chennai on May 15, 1967, neither Chief Minister C.N. Annadurai nor Food Minister K. A. Mathialagan was present. It was left to Satyavani Muthu, Minister for Information and Harijan Welfare (which was how the post of Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare was known then), to inaugurate the scheme. Even the revised scheme did not last long.
On February 9, 1983, the State was in for a dramatic event when the then Chief Minister, M.G. Ramachandran, undertook a seven-hour fast near the ‘Anna Samadhi’ (Annadurai’s mausoleum) on the Marina to draw public attention to the Centre’s “indifference” to the State’s request for rice to meet the “critical food situation”. The Chief Minister, explaining the rationale behind his agitation in the now-defunct Legislative Council the previous day, had said Tamil Nadu’s monthly requirement was 90,000 tonnes, but its stock could last only two months and because of the drought, it was in no position to procure surplus paddy from farmers. He had also denied that he had undertaken the fast with an eye on the Tiruchendur by-election (which took place on March 5, 1983, in which the AIADMK scraped through, overcoming the DMK by 1,710 votes). Even as the fast was on, the then Union Agriculture Minister, Rao Birendra Singh, tried to reach out to the Chief Minister for talks. The issue later died down.
Only a month before MGR’s fast, in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) captured power and its key promise was rice at ₹2 a kg. Eleven years later, the party had repeated the assurance and returned to power. In 1994, the Congress, which was in power then at the time of the election, offered to provide 10 kg of rice free a month to families sending two children to schools.
In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK Ministry, headed by Jayalalithaa, attempted during September, 2002 to effect a major shift in rice supply to ration card-holders. It decided that the first 10 kg of rice would be given at ₹3.50 a kg to card-holders (except the families under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana) and the balance, if applicable, would be supplied at ₹6 a kg. The intention was to reduce rice subsidy, but the decision sparked a strong opposition and the government abandoned it a year later.
Actor and Hindupur MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna relaunched the Anna Canteen and NTR Arogya Ratham here on Monday amidst much fanfare. The twin occasions marked Mr. Balakrishna’s 64th birthday celebrations. Speaking to the media, Mr. Balakrishna said that the people of Andhra Pradesh had given a historic verdict to the NDA, and “I shall tirelessly work to fulfil all the promises made to them.”
A delegation of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by its Polit Bureau member Varla Ramaiah has lodged a complaint with Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Superintendent of Police (SP) U. Ravi Prakash, alleging that former Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, his personal assistant and some officers had taken bribes from teachers for transferring them to the places of their choice.