Bharatiya Kisan Union spokesperson Rakesh Tikait on Tuesday said that the protests against the farm laws will go on and spread across India, reported India Today. He was speaking at the farmers’ “mahapanchayat” in Haryana’s Kurukshetra district.
In an exclusive interview with India Today, Tikait said: “Now, a rally of 40 lakh and not four lakh tractors will be taken out.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has never been in a protest in his life and would not understand about “andolanjivis [professional protestors]”, he told the news channel. Tikait was referring to a term used by Modi in the Rajya Sabha where he labelled protestors as a new category of people “who feed off protests”.
“They jump into all sorts of protests, whether it is by lawyers or students or workers,” Modi said on Monday. “Sometimes they can be spotted, while on other occasions, they stay in the background. They are like parasites who feed off protests.”
During the interview on Tuesday, the farmer leader also pointed out that freedom fighter Bhagat Singh and even senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani were part of protests.
Tikait reiterated his earlier statement that the farmers’ protest will continue till October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. “But the protest will not end even after that,” he said. “Farmers will keep returning to the protest sites in shifts.”
Tikait has held several “mahapanchayats” following the violence on Republic Day, helping revive the farmers’ movement that was losing momentum, according to PTI.
Earlier in the day at the mahapanchayat in Kurukshetra, Tikait alleged that attempts were being made to divide the protesting farmers on regional lines among others.
“They will try to divide you on Punjab-Haryana lines, as Sikh and non-Sikh, Hindus and Muslims..,” he alleged, according to PTI. “The farmers’ agitation against the Centre’s farm laws is nationwide and not limited to Punjab or Haryana.”
He also claimed that the 40 farmers’ unions leading the protests were fully united. “We have always said that if the government has to talk there are 40 representatives they can talk to them, whatever these unions decide will be acceptable to us,” Tikait said.
He said the agitators were prepared for a long struggle and would visit other states to garner farmers’ support for it.
He also rejected the Centre’s assertions that farm laws were in the interests of farmers, claiming that the legislations will adversely impact not just farmers but other sections too.
“The PDS [Public Distribution System] system will be finished, the poor will be impacted,” he claimed. “Small traders will be finished, small businesses will be finished and farmers will be destroyed. Only malls and godowns will survive.”
Farmers in Haryana ‘happy’, claims CM Manohar Lal Khattar
Meanwhile, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar claimed that farmers in the state were happy, alleging that some farmers’ leaders were using them for their own benefit, reported PTI.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the three farm laws were framed keeping in view the interests of the farmers,” Khattar said. “But there are some frustrated leaders whose intent is something else. Be it [Gurnam Singh] Chaduni or Rakesh Tikait, they are not doing anything in the interests of farmers. Instead, they are using the farmers to grind their own axe and serve their own interests.”
The chief minister said that his government in Haryana has provided several facilities to the farmers, started a number of schemes and ensured smooth crop procurement.
“In Haryana, farmers are happy,” he claimed. “To the few who have been misguided, we appeal to them to sit and hold talks. After threadbare discussion [on farm laws], if the government feels some things need to be set right, definitely that will be done.”
When asked if there was anything special for farmers in the state budget, Khattar said that the government will make provisions for whatever is necessary for various sections.
Tens of thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at Delhi’s border points for over two months, seeking the withdrawal of agricultural laws passed in September. The protests had largely been peaceful but violence erupted on January 26, when a tractor rally planned to coincide with Republic Day celebrations turned chaotic. More than 100 protestors have been arrested in connection with the violence and several are missing.
The farmers believe that the new laws undermine their livelihood and open the path for the corporate sector to dominate agricultural. The government, on the other hand, maintains that the new laws will give farmers more options in selling their produce, lead to better pricing, and free them from unfair monopolies. The laws are meant to overhaul antiquated procurement procedures and open up the market, the government has claimed.
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