Nirmala Sitharaman has severely attacked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin who has been propagating fake stories about the advisory issued by the Centre on bonus payments to farmers of wheat and paddy. The trade is a boost in political tensions between the Centre and the ruling DMK government in Tamil Nadu before the state elections, which are due in April 23.
Sitharaman, writing on X, indicated that Stalin had misunderstood a January 9 letter issued to all the state governments by the Expenditure Secretary V Vualnam. The letter recommended that states, owing to excess stocks of wheat and paddy, should reconsider their bonus policy and possibly stop their bonuses. Rather, it proposed to shift incentives to pulses, oilseeds, and millets based on national priorities like nutrition security, self-reliance, and sustainable agriculture.
According to the Finance Minister, the advisory was never an order but a recommendation and that majority of the states cross-cutting along party lines had taken it in the spirit of cooperative federalism. She said that no one except Stalin decided to sensationalise the issue at the expense of the political gain.
Stalin, though, had already asserted on X that the Centre had specifically requested states to cease paddy bonuses, and had demanded Sitharaman publish the letter. In reaction to this, Sitharaman published the document online and stated that the communication was just an invitation to work together on national food policy.
She also charged the DMK leadership with misrepresentation to present itself as a champion of farmers and Tamil interests as a manufactured grievance to gain political mileage. She claims that these activities weaken positive communication between the Centre and states and the absence of interest in national interest.