Swadeshi Awareness Yathra in Tamilnadu

Swadeshi Awareness Yathra-Report

Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM), Tamil Nadu went on a padha yatra from March 5 to April 5, 2012. It commenced its yatra from Coimbatore covering 13 districts of West, North and South Tamilnadu to insist on the Government to

Ø Withdraw all the moves to allow FDI in Retail Trade

Ø Withdraw all Bills that are detrimental to Agriculture and

Ø Bring back the black money stashed away abroad

The districts included Tiruppur, Namakkal, Salem, Erode, Karur, Trichy, Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore,Vellore, Kanchipuram and Chennai. Minimum 10 to 16 Street corner meetings were held a day with public participation with around 300 kilometers performed by walk. Five members including Nambi Narayanan, Illankumar Sampath, Rajamani, Manoharan and Kalyanaraman —walked around 10-12 km each day, and spoke to villagers and town people over the need to adopt Swadeshi mindset. Though all the non-congress parties were invited to participate in the yatra, the only party participated officially was BJP.

The Yathra was inaugurated by Shri. Pon. Radhakrishnan, President, BJP, TN on 5th March, 2012 at Coimbatore. Leaders from Sangh parivar including Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, Akhila Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad, Hindu Munnani participated. Office bearers of Tamil Nadu Vanigar Sangangalin Peramaippu played an active role in organising the yathra at several places. Galaxy of personalities including prominent leaders of BJP Shri. L Ganesan, Shri. H Raja, Shri C P Radhakrishnan, Smt. Tamilisai Soundararajan participated in the yathra.

People from various walks of life offered ready welcome at different points and their tremendous support underlined the need of the hour – that the Government should wake up to the reality and to the opinion of the common man against its nefarious designs to mortgage the economic sovereignty of the nation. During the course of yathra public were enlightened about the impending dangerous bills like Seed Bill 2010, Bio-Technology Regulatory Authoritative Bill, Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, Foreign University Bill, Pension Reform and Regulatory Authority Bill and policies like FDI in retail trade, and national water policy. In around 13 places the yathris were able to interact with local leaders and public about the socio-economic and cultural issues of the area.

The valedictory program was conducted on 5th April at Chennai. Mr. K Mohan, General Secretary, TN Vanigar Sangangalin Peramaippu felicitated the Yathra team. Mr. Rama. Nambi Narayanan, State Organising Secretary, SJM, TN has shared the experiences of the team.

Mr. K N Govindacharya, Patron, Rashtriya Swabhimaan Andholan stressed that Swadeshi sentiment is not just to do with materials, but is an outlook aimed at creating self-confidence and self-realisation. “We are all affected by our own environment and situations and often decide many things based on pre-conceptions. We draw a lot of conclusions based on superficial understanding. When you observe from a distance you cannot come to the right conclusions,” he said. Cautioning about the various bills, he said such moves would again enslave India under foreign hand.

Mr. S Gurumurthy, National Co-Convenor, Swadeshi Jagaran Manch appreciated the Yathra team for their efforts and elaborated on the experiences gained by them during their interaction with the public. He said that the Indian society has a lot more to offer and it is for us to learn from them instead of looking towards the West for our solutions.

On the whole, the Yathra turned out to be a mutually educative tour where the participants came to know about the native culture and methodologies of a cross section of people and the common public came to understand the harmful effects of the proposed moves of the Government.