Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Thursday alleged that the Haryana government was filing false cases against farmers to “appease its political masters”, PTI reported.
Tikait said that the agitation against the three new agricultural laws will continue and that the police cases would not deter the protestors.
On July 15, the police in Haryana had booked over 100 people, most of them unidentified, with sedition, attempt to murder and other charges in a case related to an alleged attack on the car of Haryana Deputy Speaker Ranbir Gangwa during a farmers’ protest.
Two farmer leaders – Harcharan Singh and Prahlad Singh – were also among those named in the first information report.
While addressing reporters in Haryana’s Kurukshetra city on Thursday, Tikait said that farmers are fighting a long battle against the central government, which he described as “pro-corporate”. “The central government refuses to listen to anyone and whosoever tries to speak against their injustice is branded as anti-national,” he added.
Thousands of farmers have camped on Delhi’s borders since November, demanding that the central government repeal the three laws that open up the country’s agriculture markets to private companies. The farmers have hunkered down with supplies that they say will last them for months, and have resolved to not leave until their demands are met.
Meanwhile, Tikait denied any differences between leaders of the umbrella organisation Samyukta Kisan Morcha and Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Gurnam Singh Charuni, the Hindustan Times reported. “He [Charuni] is with the morcha and we will continue our fight united,” Tikait said.
On July 14, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha had suspended Charuni for a week after he suggested that farmer leaders should contest the Punjab Assembly elections, The Indian Express reported.
The farm laws protest
Talks between farmers groups and the central government to resolve the protests came to a complete deadlock after farmers rejected the Centre’s offer to suspend the laws for two years. The last time both sides met was on January 22. Since then, most farmer leaders have said they were willing to speak to the government again.
The farmers fear the policies will make them vulnerable to corporate exploitation and would dismantle the minimum support price regime. The government, however, continues to claim that the three legislation are pro-farmer.
In January, nearly two months into the farmer protests, the Supreme Court had suspended the implementation of the farm laws. It instead set up a committee and tasked it to consult stakeholders and assess the impact of the laws.
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