News Analysis India

Tag: Bharatiya Kisan Union

  • Protest flags, slogans and marches as farmers observe ‘black day’ to mark six months of stir

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Farmers agitating at three Delhi border points raised black flags, shouted anti-government slogans, burnt effigies and took out protest marches as they observed ‘black day’ on Wednesday to mark the completion of six months of their stir against the three Central agri laws.

    A brief ruckus was also reported from the Ghazipur protest site where farmers burnt an effigy of the central government amid heavy police deployment.

    As part of their ‘black day’ protest, the farmers put up black flags and burnt effigies of government leaders at the three border points — Singhu, Ghazipur and Tikri — to register their protest against the three laws as well as the Centre.

    The Delhi Police has urged people not to hold gatherings due to the COVID-19 situation and the ongoing lockdown and said it is keeping a tight vigil to deal with any situation at the protest sites.

    Senior farmer leader Avtar Singh Mehma said that black flags have been hoisted not only at the protest sites but also in villages in Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, adding that villagers have put up black flags atop their houses as well as on their vehicles.

    “Effigies of government leaders were burnt. This day is to reiterate the fact that it has been six months since we have been protesting, but the government, which also completes seven years in office today, is not listening to us,” said Mehma.

    All those in solidarity of their movement also donned black turbans and dupattas.

    At the Singhu border, protestors gathered at the Kajaria Tiles office, held meetings, and took out a march towards the stage.

    Farmer leader Kulwant Singh said, “The protesters took out a march carrying black flags. They burnt Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effigy while raising slogans against the three farm laws.”

    #FarmersProtests | By raising black flags, shouting anti-govt slogans & burning effigies, #farmers took out protest marches as they observed #BlackDay to mark the completion of six months of their stir against three #FarmLaws.Express Video | @Shekharyadav02 pic.twitter.com/BGJaKvnSLG
    — The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) May 26, 2021

    “We are urging people to support farmers by putting black flag at their residence and other places,” he said.

    On Tuesday, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had issued notices to Delhi, UP, Haryana on alleged flouting of COVID norms by the protesting farmers.

    The Delhi Police too had urged people not to hold gatherings due to the COVID-19 situation and the ongoing lockdown.

    However, Mehma said that the government shouldn’t have introduced the three laws during the pandemic in the first place.

    ALSO READ | Punjab farmers hoist black flag atop houses to mark six months of protest against agri laws

    “If the government wants us to go back then it should listen to us and repeal the laws, because we are not going anywhere unless our demands are met.

    “It is not our hobby to sit in the heat and the cold at the borders. We also want to go back home and be safe,” the farmer leader told PTI.

    Police force has been in place at all the borders points, including the protest sites of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur, since Tuesday.

    At Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, hundreds of farmers, led by Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, converged into groups as they burnt an effigy of the Centre in protest.

    A ruckus briefly ensued between protestors and the local police, donning anti-riot gears, who had tried to stop them from burning the effigy at the UP Gate below the Delhi-Meerut Expressway.

    While many BKU supporters held black flags in their hands, several others had placards that condemned the government and demanded withdrawal of the contentious laws, even as COVID-19 protocols on social distancing and face masks were largely amiss at the site.

    Tikait, who has been leading the protest at Ghazipur since November 2020 and had become a prominent face of the protest after the January 26 violence in Delhi, was seen sporting a black-colour turban and a black flag.

    The influential BKU spokesperson from western Uttar Pradesh was credited with reviving the protest that had lost sheen after the January 26 violence with his emotional pull that overnight drew support for the farmers on Delhi’s outskirts.

    Thousands of protesting farmers reached Delhi borders on November 26 last year to protest against the Centre’s three new farm laws.

    Meanwhile, a plea in the Delhi High Court has sought an independent probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into an alleged attack on the farmers camped on the outskirts of the national capital in protest against the Centre’s three farm laws.

    ALSO READ | Mayawati voices support to farmers protesting against agri laws

    The petition has alleged that on January 29 the farmers’ camp at Singhu border, between Delhi and Haryana, was attacked by some miscreants “with assistance and guidance of the police personnel” deployed there.

    It has claimed that a criminal complaint in relation to the attack was filed at the Alipur police station against the miscreants and erring officers of Delhi Police, however, no FIR was lodged.

    The plea has also claimed that representations were sent to the CBI, the Chief Justice of India, National Commission for Women and National Human Rights Commission requesting for proper enquiry to be conducted against the accused persons, but nothing happened.

    Besides an independent court monitored probe by an SIT, the petition has also sought preserving of the video footage of the incident as the protest site was covered by police cameras.

  • Ready to resume talks with Centre over farm laws: BKU leader Rakesh Tikait

    By PTI
    CHANDIGARH: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday said farmer unions were ready to resume talks with the Centre, asserting that the discussion would have to be about repealing the new farm laws.

    He said there is no question of farmers returning home from the protest sites unless their demands are met.

    Tikait was interacting with reporters in Mohali, where he had gone to offer condolences to the family of Abhay Singh Sandhu.

    Sandhu, the nephew of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, died recently due to post-COVID complications.

    “When the government wants to talk, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha will talk,” Tikait said, asserting that it has to be about repealing the Centre’s new farm laws.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of over 40 protesting farmer unions, on Friday had written to the prime minister, urging resumption of talks over the three farm laws they have been agitating against since November last year.

    Several rounds of talks between farmers and the government have failed to break the deadlock over the three central laws.

    A government panel had met farmers leaders on January 22.

    There have been no talks between the two sides since January 26 when the farmers’ tractor rally in the national capital turned violent.

    Tikait said May 26 will mark six months of the farmers’ protest at Delhi borders.

    “For six months, farmers have been protesting at border points, but the government is not listening,” he said.

    Twelve major opposition parties, including the Congress, TMC, Left parties, SP, NCP and the DMK, on Sunday extended their support to a countrywide protest call given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha on May 26.

    According to Haryana BKU chief Gurnam Singh Chaduni, farmers in large numbers from Karnal district on Sunday left for the Singhu border as farmers will be observing May 26 as “black day” to mark six months of their protest.

    Farmers have been camping at Delhi’s borders since November 2020 demanding that the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 be rolled back and a new law made to guarantee minimum support price for crops.

    The government, however, has maintained the three central laws are pro-farmer.

  • Pandemic shadow over farmers’ protests as BKU faction bats for halting agitation temporarily

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Kisan Union (Kisan Sarkar) Thursday appealed to the protesting farmers to temporarily halt their agitation against the three Central farm laws in view of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    BKU (Kisan Sarkar) spokesperson Bhopal Singh said the anti-farm law protests can resume later when the coronavirus situation in the country improves.

    “Being a part of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, I want to appeal to all the farmers to postpone their agitation at Singhu, Tikri and other borders for the time being.

    We will resume our fight against the three farm laws and for a legal guarantee on MSP (minimum support price) after the situation improves in the country,” he said.

    Scores of farmers have been protesting at the three Delhi borders for over six months now demanding the Centre repeal the three contentious agri-marketing related laws passed last year.

    ALSO READ | Pandemic shadow over farmers protests? Two die near Singhu border, one found COVID positive

    The country currently is in the middle of a rampaging second wave of coronavirus with over 3,500 deaths and more than 2. 5 lakh cases being reported daily for the past several days.

    “We will continue our protest later. And we will win. The situation in the country is not good at this time. It is our country. And, it is the responsibility of all the farmers to stand by our country at this time of crisis,” he said.

    He also noted that two protesting farmers at Singhu border died of Covid-19 infection on Wednesday.

    “If our farmers continue dying like this, who will be there to participate in the protest in the coming days? That’s why it is my request that we postpone our agitation for the time being in view of the prevailing crisis in the country. If we farmers survive and save crops in the fields, only then will we be called ‘annadata’,” he said.

  • BKU leader Rakesh Tikait, 12 others booked in Haryana

    By IANS
    CHANDIGARH: Haryana Police has registered a case against Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait and 12 others for violating prohibitory orders, officials said on Sunday.

    Tikait and other leaders addressed the ‘Mahapanchayat’ in a village near Ambala Cantonment on Saturday.

    The other BJP leaders who have been booked included Ratan Maan Singh, Baldev Singh and Jasmer Saini.

    To contain the pandemic, the district magistrate had imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which bars a gathering of four or more persons.

  • ‘Farmer unions ready to discuss agri laws with Centre but it has to be about repealing those’: Tikait

    Tikait, who has in recent months addressed a series of farmers #39; gatherings across Haryana, said the tillers have been agitating for more than five months near various borders of the national capital.

  • Attack on my convoy pre-planned by BJP workers: BKU supremo Rakesh Tikait

    By PTI
    ALIGARH: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait claimed on Saturday that the attack on his convoy of vehicles in Rajasthan’s Alwar was “pre-planned by BJP workers” and said it should serve as a reminder to the farmers protesting against three new agriculture laws of the Centre about the travails and challenges they are going to face in the days to come.

    Addressing a “kisan mahapanchayat” at Bhaimalkheda village in this Uttar Pradesh district, Tikait said such attacks “are, in fact, strengthening our resolve to further intensify our struggle, which is a battle for our existence”.

    Talking to reporters after the “mahapanchayat”, he said, “We are mentally prepared for more such incidents.”

    Stones were allegedly pelted at the convoy of Tikait, an influential farmer leader, in Rajasthan’s Alwar district on Friday, damaging the rear windshield of his car.

    Police had detained a student leader, who the BKU claimed belonged to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and accused the saffron party of being behind the attack.

    Addressing the “mahapanchayat” here, Tikait issued a call to the protesting farmers to be mentally prepared to continue with their agitation at least till the end of the year, when they would taste victory.

    He urged them to be mobile phone savvy so that they can be active on social media.

    Tikait, who held a “mahapanchayat” in Aligarh for the first time after the farmers’ agitation was launched in November last year, alleged that corporates had fully entrenched themselves in the present ruling dispensation, including the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

    He said how else can one explain the construction of huge grain depots and godowns in several parts of the country “even before the controversial farm laws came to existence”.

    The BKU leader said this itself provides conclusive evidence of the government’s intentions.

    He warned the farmers that even more draconian measures are on the anvil as far as the farm laws are concerned, including stringent regulations regarding crop seeds.

    Tikait alleged that under the proposed measures, farmers would be liable to be bound by pernicious terms and conditions, which would place them at the mercy of the seed-selling firms.

    He said the three laws would make it impossible for the farmers to enjoy the right to use the seeds of their choice and frustrate them to such an extent that they would be compelled to sell their land to corporates.

  • Farmers protest at Noida border against ‘attack’ on Rakesh Tikait

    By Express News Service
    NOIDA: Traffic movement was disrupted between Noida and Delhi through a key route on Friday evening after a group of farmers started protesting on the road stretch. The members of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) demonstrated against the attack on their leader Rakesh Tikait in Rajasthan earlier on Friday.

    “The Chilla route between Noida and Delhi has been affected due to the demonstration. Commuters can use the DND (Delhi-Noida Direct) flyway or the Kalindi Kunj route for travelling,” a Noida Traffic Police official said.

    Due to the sudden closure of the route, several vehicles piled up on the busy road stretch at the Uttar Pradesh-Delhi border around 8 pm. Stones were allegedly pelted at the convoy Tikait in Alwar district, damaging the rear windshield of his car.

    Police have detained a student leader, who the Bhartiya Kisan Union claimed, belonged to ABVP, the student wing of the BJP, and accused the party of being behind the attack. Tikait, however, was not in his car when the stones were allegedly pelted, Bhiwadi Superintendent of Police Ram Murti Joshi said, adding no one was injured in the incident.

    The incident took place when Tikait’s convoy reached Tatarpur chauraha on its way to his second rally venue, the SP said, adding the farmer leader addressed two rallies in the district on Friday. He said Kuldeep Rai, a student leader of Alwar-based Matsya University, along with his supporters showed black flags when the cavalcade was passing.  “At this, some of the cars stopped and their occupants in the vehicles argued with them over the issue. Amid all this, the windshield of one car was damaged apparently in stone pelting,” the SP said.

  • Gujarat: Eight farm group leaders held for COVID-19 norm violations

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: Eight farm group leaders were held on Friday for allegedly flouting COVID-19 norms while addressing a press conference in a restaurant in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, police said.

    Among those held by Chandkheda police was Bharatiya Kisan Union general secretary Yudhvir Singh, an official said.

    “We detained eight persons when they were organising a press conference at a restaurant as they were flouting COVID- 19 guidelines,” DCP (Zone 2) Vijay Patel said.

    Singh said those protesting against the Centre’s farm laws would continue to speak up despite such acts by authorities.

    They were later allowed to go, police added.

    The press conference was organised to announce the visit of Rakesh Tikait to Gujarat next month when police barged in and detained Singh and others,” said Ahmedabad-based activist Dev Desai.

    Criticising the action of Gujarat police, BKU national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait tweeted that his colleague Yudhvir Singh and others were held as the government had started getting nervous about the farm protests.

    “This is the Gujarat model and masses are under the grip and nobody is free. This type of condition prevails nowhere in the country,” Tikait added.

  • Farmers observe ‘Shaheed Diwas’; Tikait says will sell produce at Parliament complex

    By PTI
    JAIPUR: Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Tuesday said that farmers, if required, will sell their produce at the Parliament complex as part of their protest against the Centre’s new agri laws.

    Farmers will not be divided, Tikait said while addressing a ‘Kisan Mahapanchayat’ in Jaipur’s Vidhyadhar Nagar stadium.

    “If required, farmers will go to Parliament to sell their crops,” he said and called upon them to be ready to move towards Delhi whenever required.

    Hundreds of farmers are camping at Delhi’s borders since November last year demanding that the Centre repeal the three contentious farm laws.

    The farmer leader said that a nationwide movement against the farm laws has started and youths have a big responsibility now.

    Tikait said that the country will be saved when slogans of ‘Jai Ram’ and ‘Jai Bhim’ are raised together.

    However, he cut short his speech as the weather turned bad.

    Earlier, social activist and Samyukt Kisan Morcha leader Yogendra Yadav said that farmers of the country want legal guarantee for minimum support price.

    Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the Centre as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell their produce anywhere in the country.

    The protesting farmers, on the other hand, have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the minimum support price and do away with the “mandi” (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

    Tikait, on the occasion, also announced appointment of Jat leader Rajaram Meel as the state president of Bharatiya Kisan Union and Jhabar Singh as national secretary.

    Meanwhile, to mark ‘Shaheed Diwas’, thousands of youth from different parts of the country on Tuesday took over the protest sites at Delhi’s borders, demonstrating their role in shaping the future of the country.

    According to a statement issued by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), thousands of youth had started arriving at the three protest sites since Monday.

    There were also three ‘padyatras’, which culminated in the youth joining the protest sites in Delhi.

    Hundreds of farmers are camping at Delhi’s borders points at Ghazipur, Singhu and Tikri since November last year demanding that the Centre repeal the three contentious farm laws.

    March 23 is observed as ”Shaheed Diwas” to pay tribute to Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru who were executed by the British government for killing British police officer J P Saunders.

    The trio wanted to avenge the death of freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai.

    The day-long commemoration of ‘Shaheed Diwas’ at Singhu saw conferences being organised where over 60 youth activists addressed the farmers, while extending their support to the movement.

    “Speakers described the current regime as anti-farmer and anti-worker,” the SKM statement noted.

    The event also saw participation by young women, who “challenged the government in sharp words”.

    “Women leaders from Haryana said that the dreams that Shaheed Bhagat Singh had dreamt of remain unfulfilled. Another speaker reminded us that Bhagat Singh had warned us that the country would not get freedom only by the British leaving the country; that this country would be truly independent only when the exploitation of farmers and labourers ends,” the SKM statement said.

    They also presented Bhagat Singh’s views on the international conspiracy of exploitation of farmers and labourers, it added.

    Similar events were organised at the Tikri border, where in large numbers, members of the Kisan Mazdoor families questioned the government on the lack of education and employment opportunities for the youth.

    Speaking in solidarity with the farmers’ movement, the youth said they would not go back without securing the demands of the protests.

    Soil was collected from historical places associated with the martyrs, like Sunam, Khatkad Kalan, Shri Anandpur Sahib, Shri Fatehgarh Sahib, Sarabha, Jallianwala Bagh, Hussainiwala, Shri Chamkaur Sahib and brought to the Singhu and Tikri borders, the SKM statement said.

    At the Ghazipur border too, young men and women, especially from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, pledged to make the farmers’ movement successful by “following the ideas of Bhagat Singh”.

    According to the SKM, ‘Shaheed Diwas’ was also observed in other parts of the country, including Gujarat, Hyderabad and Jaipur.

    “A mega rally was organised in the memory of martyrs in Khatkad Kalan, the village of Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Speaking at the rally, the youth said that whenever the country is hit by a crisis, the youth of Punjab will fight for human rights by sacrificing everything,” it said.

    The Kanpur Dehat District Unit of the All India Kisan Khet Mazdoor Sangathan also organised a motorcycle march on the occasion of the martyrdom day of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev on the SKM’s call.

    On March 30, farmers of the Narmada Valley will also participate in the ‘Mitti Satyagraha Yatra’ from Dandi in Gujarat, and the soil of the valley will be taken to the protest sites in Delhi, the statement said.

  • Protests against agri laws: BKU leader Rakesh Tikait to address Kisan Mahapanchayat in Jaipur

    By PTI
    JAIPUR: Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait will address a Kisan Mahapanchayat in Jaipur on Tuesday.

    The mahapanchayat will be held at Vidhyadhar Nagar stadium, Raja Ram Meel, president of the Jat Mahasabha, said.

    “It will be the first meeting of Tikait in Jaipur. Earlier, he has held a few meetings in other districts like Hanumangarh and Ganganagar,” Meel told reporters.

    “Farmers have understood that the Modi government has cheated them and is trying to weaken farmers. The government is planning to hand over the agriculture sector to industrialists and farmers have understood this thing. Therefore, there are countrywide protests against the farm laws,” he said.

    Meel said the BJP will suffer huge losses in elections, including the bypolls on three assembly seats in Rajasthan next month, over the farmers’ issue.