MRK Panneerselvam, the Tamil Nadu Agriculture Minister, has caused discontent among farmers after being constantly behaving in a discourteous manner with farmers and agricultural authorities.
M R K Panneerselvam stirred controversy on Monday when he told a journalist, “If you ask a dumb question, you will receive a dumb reply.” The minister was speaking at a press briefing in Thanjavur, where he was reviewing kuruvai crop readiness in the Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts.
Farmers criticize the minister’s conduct as a way of disregarding the farmers’ main problem while implicitly encouraging procurement center officials to engage in bribery. They also demanded that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin take strong action against the Agricultural Minister for his callous public behaviour.
P Viswanathan, state president of the Tamilagam Lake and River Irrigation Farmers Association, voiced his discontent with the way agriculture handled the question of farmer welfare, saying, “The complaint of a bribe raised by the journalist was true. We had even staged demonstrations over the issue then. The question was posed to the minister so that such issues can be curtailed now. The minister should not have made such an inappropriate reaction.”
This isn’t the first time the minister has acted insensitively in public. He was accused of not adequately listening to farmers’ demands during a consultative meeting held in Thanjavur a few days before about the opening of the Mettur dam.
(with inputs from Vikatan)
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