Chennai: Dubbing DMK's call for a state-wide bandh on April 25 condemning the attitude of the Union and State Governments towards farmers as a "political stunt", the PMK on Sunday said the problems of the farming community could have been solved much earlier if the erstwhile DMK government had implemented policies suggested by it.
In a statement, party founder S Ramadoss also tore into the DMK for adopting "different standards" on calling for a bandh while being in the government and functioning as principal opposition party. He cited the letter by the then Chief Secretary KS Sripathi "almost threatening" political parties not to hold a bandh on February 4, 2009 against the killing of innocent Tamils in Sri Lanka.
"The form of protest chosen by the DMK will cause hardships to the people since transport will be affected and shops will be shut. The bandh would cause severe inconvenience to lakhs of people belonging to all sections of the society. Moreover, at a time when the Supreme Court has banned bandhs, how can we knock at the doors of the apex court seeking the constitution of the Cauvery Management Board when we go against its own judgment?" Mr Ramadoss asked.
Contending that the PMK supports all demands put forth by the DMK while calling for a day-long bandh, Mr Ramadoss said the party, which was in power in Tamil Nadu for a very long time, had never taken any "progressive steps" to uplift farmers and ignored every suggestion put forth by the PMK in its "Agriculture Budget" being released for the past ten years.
Having done nothing to help farmers for the past couple of years, PMK is at loss to understand the logic behind DMK's call for a bandh, Mr Ramadoss said. Holding DMK responsible for the Cauvery issue with Karnataka, the PMK founder sought to know what was the contribution of DMK, which was part of the UPA I and II, in implementing the orders of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal that came in February 2007.
"PMK supports the peaceful protests by farmers on their demands but denounces any move by any political party calling for a bandh. Any such move is only an attempt to rally political forces which would not help the cause of the farmers," Ramadoss said.
