AIADMK wants Peace Nobel for Jayalalithaa

CHENNAI: Authors of the resolutions adopted at the AIADMK general council meeting did not do their homework. By proposing the late Chief Minister's name for Nobel Peace Prize and demanding that her birthday which falls on February 24 be declared as National Farmers' Day, they came off poor since none of these seem to be possible.

Resolution number 11 adopted at the General Council says, "This council resolves to make all efforts to bestow Ramon Magsaysay Award, popularly known as Asia's noble prize, on our chief minister Puratchi Thalaivi Amma for her service to the humanity and Nobel Prize for Peace for her efforts to eradicate poverty by feeding the needy (through Amma canteens)."

A person's name cannot be nominated for a Nobel Prize posthumously and a person could be awarded a prize posthumously if he/she had already been nominated before February 1 of the same year, which was true of Erik Axel Karlfeldt (Nobel Prize in Literature 1931) and Dag Hammarskjöld (Nobel Peace Prize, 1961).

The authors of the resolution seem to have not done their research properly since it is a well-known fact that the Nobel Committee had in 1948 decided not to award the peace prize that year because they could not bestow the honour on Mahatma Gandhi, who passed away in January that year.

Resolution number 9 says the late Jayalalithaa always called herself a "farmer" and since she has brought smiles on the faces of farmers across Tamil Nadu through her "innovative schemes", her birthday should be observed as National Farmers' Day. This is again a goof-up as already, the Union Government commemorates each year on the first Friday of December as National Farmers Day to honour our gallant farmers and fishers.

Political analyst Prof Ramu Manivannan says these kinds of proportions are part of the cult worship that the AIADMK may want to sustain and says the demand for observing her birthday, as National Farmers Day is unjust.

"This again shows the legacy of the cult behaviour that the AIADMK has been practicing. I don't think Jayalalithaa has done anything specific for the farming community. I don't see any logic in the demand for observing her birthday as Farmers Day," Mr Manivannan, head of politics and public administration department, University of Madras, told Deccan Chronicle.

Why not Water Day?
The AIADMK could have demanded observation of Water Day as a mark of respect to her, said Mr Manivannan , head of politics and public administration department, University of Madras. The late leader was passionate about fighting for the water rights be it Cauvery or Mullaiperiyar and that she had also introduced rain water harvesting system that benefited millions. “With due credit to her, she did fight for water rights of the state and they could pay tribute to her by asking for a Water Day,” he said.