News Analysis India

Tag: Bharatiya Kishan Union

  • Will march to Parliament on November 26 if SKM approves: Haryana BKU chief Chaduni

    By PTI

    CHANDIGARH: Haryana BKU (Chaduni) chief Gurnam Singh Chaduni said farmers from the state will march to Parliament on November 26 if the Samyukta Kisan Morcha approves the decision taken in this regard in Rohtak on Sunday.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) is an umbrella body of 40 farmer unions spearheading the agitation against the Centre’s three farm laws.

    A meeting of various farmers’ outfits from the state was held in Rohtak, Chaduni told reporters later.

    Giving details about the decisions taken at the meeting, he said, “On November 26, which is also the Constitution Day, we decided in the meeting to march to Parliament. On November 9, we will keep this decision before a meeting of the SKM. If they approve it, then we will go”.

    Chaduni said in the meeting at Rohtak, it has been demanded that a case be registered against BJP MP Arvind Sharma over his controversial remarks.

    Attacking the Congress over some of his party leaders being held up in Rohtak on Friday, the BJP MP from Rohtak had on Saturday allegedly threatened that “eye will be gouged out and hand chopped off” if anybody tries to target former Haryana minister Manish Grover.

    “A resolution was passed in the meeting condemning his remarks and it was decided that a case be registered against the MP,” said Chaduni.

    Chaduni also alleged that several farmers who are protesting against the Centre’s farm laws are receiving summons in various cases slapped against them in Haryana.

    “In many cases, farmers are getting summons. It was decided in the meeting that no one should respond to these summons. When a decision about the (farmers’) agitation will be taken, it will be decided accordingly what has to be done in this regard (about summons),” he said.

    Earlier, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait had said that the farmers’ protest will be intensified if the farm laws are not repealed by November 26.

    Hundreds of farmers are encamped at Delhi borders since November last year are demanding that the government repeal the three agri laws — 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.

    They claim that these laws will leave them at the mercy of corporates.

    They are also demanding a new law to guarantee the minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.

    The Centre, which has held 11 rounds of talks with farmers to break the deadlock, has maintained that the new laws are pro-farmer.

    Meanwhile, farmers’ protest outside Narnaund police station in Haryana to demand withdrawal of an FIR filed against two farmers continued for the second day on Sunday, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha said.

    The umbrella body of farmer unions, in a statement, said if the matter was not resolved on Sunday, they would gherao the Hansi SP office on Monday.

    The windshield of BJP MP Ram Chander Jangra’s car was smashed after some miscreants allegedly threw lathis on the vehicle during a protest over his visit to Haryana’s Hisar on Friday.

    A group of protesters carrying black flags blocked Jangra’s route in Narnaund, according to the police.

    “The police had filed an FIR and arrested two farmers for showing black flag to BJP MP Jangra. While the farmers were released on a personal bond, the case against them continues,” the body said in the statement.

    The SKM said one farmer, Kuldeep Singh Rana, got seriously injured in the incident, and is still fighting for his life at the Jindal Hospital.

    The 40-year-old owns a very small tract of land.

    “Farmers are demanding that the case against the farmers be taken back, and another case be filed for the injury suffered by Kuldeep Singh Rana. Farmers have announced that if the matter is not resolved by Sunday, they will gherao the Hansi SP office from tomorrow,” it said.

    Meanwhile, farmers in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh will hold a protest against the state government at Jari Mandi on November 9.

    Apart from the demand for dismissal of Ajay Mishra Teni from the Union Council of Ministers in connection with the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, farmers’ demands include paddy procurement at Rs 1,940 per quintal.

  • ‘Farmers ready to talk if government invites, no change in demands’: Rakesh Tikait

    By PTI
    GHAZAIBAD: Farmers protesting the contentious new farm laws are ready to talk if the Centre invites them, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait said on Sunday, maintaining that the dialogue would resume where it had ended on January 22 and the demands remain unchanged.

    He said for the talks to resume, the government should invite the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body representing the protestors who are camping at the three border points of Delhi at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur since November 2020.

    “The talks with the government would resume from the same point where it had ended on January 22. The demands are also the same — all three ‘black’ farm laws should be repealed, a new law made to ensure MSP (minimum support price) for crops,” Tikait was quoted as saying in a statement issued by BKU media in-charge Dharmendra Malik.

    The BKU national spokesperson’s remarks came in response to Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij urging Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar to resume talks with protesting farmers amid the coronavirus scare looming large.

    Maintaining that a surge in the coronavirus cases is being seen across the country and the situation is turning bad in Haryana too, Vij said he is worried about the farmers protesting on the state borders with Delhi.

    The protestors and the government last had a formal dialogue over the contentious issue on January 22 but the impasse continued.

    On January 26, the protestors had carried out a ‘tractor parade’ in Delhi which had escalated into a violence involving farmers and the police in the national capital.

  • ‘Modi government shouldn’t treat farmers’ stir like Shaheen Bagh protest’: Tikait

    The Bharatiya Kishan Union leader also said the protesting farmers will follow all COVID-19 protocols and if need be, continue their agitation till 2023.

  • Foundation laid for ‘memorial’ to farmers who died during course of protest against agri laws

    By PTI
    GHAZIABAD: The BKU has laid the foundation for a ‘martyr memorial’ at the agitation site on the Ghazipur-Ghaziabad (UP Gate) border to pay tributes to the farmers who died during the course of the protest against the Centre’s three agri laws.

    The BKU claimed that soil for the memorial was brought by social workers from the villages of “320 farmers who died during the protest against the farm laws”.

    Soil collected from the martyrs of the freedom movement has also been brought to the protest site, where the foundation for the memorial was laid by BKU leader Rakesh Tikait and social activist Medha Patkar on Tuesday.

    The memorial would later be constructed permanently, BKU media incharge Dharmendra Malik told PTI.

    Ghaziabad District Magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey, however, said the foundation for the ‘martyr memorial’ is “just symbolic and not permanent”.

    A group of 50 social activists brought soil from all the states, and a ‘Mitti Satyagrah Yatra’ was also held, according to the BKU.

    The soil from the villages of freedom fighters Bhagat singh, Sukhdev, Rajguru, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Ram Prasad Bismil and Ashfaqullah Khan was also brought to the agitation site, it said.

    Meanwhile, protesting farmers on Tuesday blocked a BJP MP’s car, smashing its windscreen as he tried to leave a party worker’s home, police said.

    Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh Saini said police had a tough time getting him away from the protesters at Shahbad Markanda, 20 kms from here.

    In two separate incidents, groups of farmers raised slogans against Women and Child Development Minister Kamlesh Dhanda in Kaithal district and state BJP chief O P Dhankar shortly before he was to arrive for a party event in Panipat.

    Describing the attack on Saini as “murderous”, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said while it is the democratic right of farmers to hold a protest, violence will not be tolerated.

    Farmers protesting over the three new farm laws were sitting on a ‘dharna’ in front of Jannayak Janta Party MLA Ram Karan Kala’s home when they learnt that Saini had reached a BJP worker’s home in nearby Majri mohalla.

    They then gathered outside the BJP worker’s home while Saini had tea inside, police said.

    According to Saini, when he sat in the vehicle and tried to leave the place, over 50 protesters ‘gheraoed’ it.

    A few of them jumped over the vehicle’s bonnet while someone smashed the windscreen with a stone or a lathi.

    He said it was with great difficulty that the police got him out of the area in the SUV.

    The MP said those who indulge in acts of violence against elected representatives cannot be farmers.

    Such people are defaming farmers, he added.

    Police were deployed in large numbers in the area after the incident.

    Kurukshetra Superintendent of Police Himanshu Garg said police are investigating the matter and would file a case against those found responsible for the violence.

    In another incident, a group of farmers raised slogans when Women and Child Development Minister Kamlesh Dhanda’s cavalcade was passing through Kaithal district to attend an event in a village.

    Another group of farmers raised slogans against state BJP chief Dhankar shortly before he was to arrive for a party event in Panipat.

    The police had to take an alternate route to make him reach the event venue.

    On the Kurukshetra incident, Khattar said, “It was a murderous attack on the MP. This is not a small incident.”

    The farmers have been saying they will hold a peaceful protest, which is their democratic right, but any incident of violence will not be tolerated, the chief minister told reporters in Chandigarh.

    Asked about farmer leaders’ call for the boycott of BJP-JJP leaders, Khattar targeted the opposition parties, saying they have not condemned this, “which means they are extending their silent support (to the boycott call)”.

    Tuesday’s incidents are the latest in a series of protests by farmers against ruling BJP-JJP coalition leaders in Haryana.

    On Saturday, farmers had held a protest against Khattar in Rohtak, resulting in a lathicharge by the police and forcing authorities to shift the landing site for his helicopter.

    Asked about the Rohtak incident, Khattar said, “I have got video clippings. Was it a peaceful protest? When you see the clips you will understand.”

    On the police action against the protesters, he said, “They tried to clash with the police. The police will have to take some steps in self-defence. Will they sit silent when stones are being pelted at them? Three cops were injured in the incident. Those who claim protests will remain peaceful should ensure they remain so.”

    Notably, farmers also held a protest last week against Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala outside the Hisar airport.

    Farmer leaders have said they would continue their “peaceful social boycott” of leaders from the BJP and its allies.

    The Centre says the new farm laws will free farmers from middlemen, giving them more options to sell their crops.

    The protesting farmers, however, say the laws will weaken the minimum support price (MSP) system and leave them at the mercy of big corporates.

  • ‘Farmers haven’t left protest sites’: Rakesh Tikait’s reminder to Modi government

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: Refuting claims that farmers have left protest sites along the Delhi border, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday said they had gone to the fields to work and would return when the Central government was “free from West Bengal elections”.

    Farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, have been protesting at the Delhi border for over 4 months now against the Centre’s three agri marketing laws, and have demanded its repeal along with a legal guarantee on the minimum support price mechanism.

    Tikait, who reached Gujarat to drum up support for the stir, began his two-day visit by praying at the Ambaji Temple in Banaskantha district and then addressing groups in Ambaji and Palanpur.

    At a meeting held in Palanpur, a black flag was shown to Tikait by a youth, following which he was thrashed by supporters of the farmer leader.

    The youth was then taken away by police personnel.

    ALSO READ | Farmers try to gherao union minister Som Parkash in Hoshiarpur, cops foil their attempt

    Later, Tikait said, “Let them show black flags, it does not matter. I have come here to make the people of Gujarat, the media, farmers, and the youth free. Let farmers and the youth join the agitation”.

    Tikait told the gathering that the three laws were enacted to help businessmen and not farmers, and the latter had decided to not move from the protest sites till victory, that is acceptance of all their demands, was achieved.

    “All reports that farmers have left the agitation sites are wrong. Farmers come and go. At present, they have gone to work in their fields. We have told them to come back once the government is free from (West) Bengal elections. The entire government is camping in Bengal. Once the government returns, we will start negotiations with it,” Tikait claimed.

    He said farmers from Gujarat must also join the protest in large numbers so that the country feels confident that cultivators from the state from where some of the big leaders hail, a possible reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, are also against the new laws.

    Exhorting farmers from Gujarat to use tractors to protest, Tikait said these vehicles are the “tanks of farmers” and were put to good use in Delhi to remove police barricades.

    While former Gujarat chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela accompanied Tikait in his rally from Ambaji to Palanpur, Congress MLA Geniben Thakor welcomed the BKU leader when he entered the state earlier in the day.

    Incidentally, Tikait had taken a swipe at the BJP government in Gujarat earlier in the day by showing his passport to reporters while entering the state after alighting from a train in Abu Road in neighbouring Rajasthan.

    Asked about whether he was carrying a COVID-19 negative certificate, which is mandatory while travelling to Gujarat, Tikait showed his passport and said, “I have all the documents with me. This is my passport if it is required to enter Gujarat”.

    Tikait will visit Sabarmati Ashram on Monday and go to Bardoli on the second day of his Gujarat visit.

    The BJP is “provoking” the youth to indulge in violence and trying to give a “violet twist” to the stir against its three farm laws, alleged BKU national president Naresh Tikait citing the attack on farmer leader Rakesh Tikait’s convoy in Rajasthan’s Alwar recently.

    ALSO READ | Farmer bodies stage stir at FCI offices demanding remunerative MSP for crops

    Police had detained a student leader, whom the Bhartiya Kisan Union claimed belonged to the ABVP, the student wing of the BJP.

    Tikait was not in his car when the convoy was pelted with stones.

    The BJP-led Centre is “providing weapons” to the youth and “provoking” them to indulge in violence, Naresh Tikait said, alleging that the Alwar attack was carried out by ABVP workers.

    We have forgiven them as we don’t want to spoil their career and have asked the Rajasthan government not to take any legal action against them, the BKU leader said during a “Kisan Mahapanchayat” at the Ghazipur protest site.

    The government is trying to give a “violent twist” to the peaceful protest, for which attempts have been made at several times, Tikait alleged, adding that farmers don’t want any confrontation with the government.

    Tikait also said the government did not utter even a single word on the demise of 300 farmers during the course of the agitation.

    Tikait also said MPs and MLAs of the ruling party are facing humiliation in villages as they are unable to respond to farmers’ queries.

  • Agri laws: SC-appointed panel submits report; highway blockade, Parliament march on cards for protesting farmers

    Express News Service
    CHANDIGARH: Protesting farmers have firmed up their agitation schedule for April-May. On April 10, they plan to block the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) expressway, almost a month ahead of their march to Parliament in May.

    The general body meeting of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) was held on Monday at Singhu border.

    “On April 5, the farmers will lay a siege to the FCI offices across the country. On April 10, the KMP expressway will be blocked for 24 hours from 11 am and on April 13, the festival of Baisakhi will be celebrated at Delhi borders,’’ said Morcha leader Darshan Pal.

    “Our action is meant to wake up the government,’’ he added.

    “We’ll mark April 14 the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar as the Samvidhan Bachao Divas. On May 1, we’ll mark Mazdoor Day on the borders of Delhi. The day will be dedicated to farmer-labourer unity,’’ said Pal.

    He said the day of the march to Parliament would be decided later.

    “Farmers, labourers, women, Dalit-Adivasi-Bahujans, unemployed youths and every section of the society will be a part of this march. People will come in their own vehicles from villages to the borders of Delhi. After this, a foot march will be undertaken,’’ said the Morcha leader.

    “We will form a committee to let the protesters know what to do in case there is police action during the march,’’ he said.

    Pal alleged that SKM farmer leaders, who held the banner ‘No vote for BJP/NDA’ in the Kerala capital, were thrashed by BJP and RSS workers.

    “We strongly condemn it,’’ he said. The Morcha also released a document explaining ‘what is black in these (farm) laws’.

    The Supreme Court-appointed committee to study the three new controversial agricultural laws has submitted its report to the apex court on March 19 in a sealed cover, one of its members said on Wednesday.

    The Supreme Court had on January 11 stayed the implementation of the three laws till further orders and appointed a four-member panel to resolve the impasse.

    The committee was given two months to study the laws and consult all stakeholders.

    “We submitted the report on March 19 in a sealed cover. Now, the court will decide the future course of action,” one of the members of the committee P K Mishra told PTI.

    As per the committee’s official website, the panel held total 12 rounds of consultations with various stakeholders, including farmers groups, farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) procurement agencies, professionals, academicians, private as well as state agriculture marketing boards.

    The panel also held nine internal meetings before finalising the report.

    Apart from Mishra, Shetkari Sanghatana President Anil Ghanwat and agri-economist and former chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) Ashok Gulati are other members of the panel.

    The fourth member, Bhartiya Kisan Union President Bhupinder Singh Mann, had, however, recused himself from the committee before the work began.

    Separately, while briefing Cabinet decisions, Food Minister Piyush Goyal said that while the new farm laws have been brought in the interest of farmers, it is a different issue “some people have misled farmers and tried to create a negative atmosphere”.

    However, farmers across the country now understand that the new farm laws do not take away the existing system of mandis, and provide more marketing options, he said.

    Goyal also explained that the government’s main concern when the new farm laws were passed in Parliament was how to increase farmers’ income and what steps should be taken to open more avenues to ensure their income rises.

    In the new farm laws, the government kept the existing option of selling farmers’ produce in the APMC mandis intact and provided for other marketing options to ensure better returns to farmers besides creating jobs and attracting investment in the farm sector, he said.

    While giving other marketing options, the government has carefully designed it to ensure farmers’ land is protected and they do not sell their produce under compulsion for lesser price to a trader, he added.

    Goyal was one of the central ministers who was present in the last 12 rounds of meetings held with protesting farmers’ unions to end the impasse.

    In its last meeting on January 22, the government had offered to suspend the laws for 18 months which the protesting farmers have rejected.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Kisan Morcha appeals to citizens to make Bharat Bandh successful; Tikait warns Centre

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a front of protesting farmer unions, on Wednesday appealed to the citizens of the country to make the March 26 Bharat Bandh a complete success.

    According to a statement released by the SKM, farmers have been protesting on the borders of Delhi for the last four months and instead of accepting their demands, the government is discrediting them completely.

    The SKM has called for a Bharat Bandh on Friday.

    On March 26, from 6 am to 6 pm, all road and rail transport, markets and other public places will be closed across the country, it said.

    However, this is not necessary for the places where elections are going to be held, the statement said.

    “We appeal to the people of the country to make this Bharat Bandh a success and honour their ‘Annadata’,” farmer leader Darshan Pal said.

    Farmers organized programmes across the country on Martyrdom Day on Tuesday.

    A torch procession was taken out at Bhatgaon, Sonipat, in Haryana.

    In Ashok Nagar, Madhya Pradesh, young people wrote slogans of “Inquilab Zindabad” with their blood and organised a blood donation camp, the statement said.

    Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Wednesday said the farmers’ agitation will continue till the time the Centres rolls back the farm laws and provides legal guarantee on MSP.

    Referring to cases registered against many farmers in the aftermath of incidents on January 26 in Delhi, Tikait said, “Farmers are not scared of cases. This agitation will continue so long the Centre does not withdraw these laws and till the time a law is framed giving legal guarantee on MSP.”

    “This agitation will go till November-December,” he said, while making it clear that the government should not be mistaken that farmers were going anywhere.

    “The government thinks farmers will return home in summer. Earlier they thought we would go back home in peak winter. But we are not going anywhere, we have installed fans etc there,” he said, addressing a farmers ‘Mahapanchayat’ here.

    Anyone helping farmers in their agitation is facing harassment from government agencies, he alleged.

    Claiming that the farm laws were not in favour of farmers, Tikait said the next target of the Centre is to create such a situation that “farmers will eventually leave their land”.

    “It is their plan to take away your land in the next 20 years,” he added.

    “Their target is to turn farmers into labourers, and once that happens they will get cheap labourers from villages for factories,” Tikait said.

    He also thanked farmers of Haryana and ‘khaps’ (caste council) of the state for supporting this agitation.

    Tikait also called upon the farmers to be ready to move towards Delhi whenever required.

    Hundreds of farmers are camping near 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 the youth have a big responsibility now.

    Tikait said the country will be saved when slogans of “Jai Ram” and “Jai Bhim” are raised together.

    Enacted in September 2020, 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.

    A meeting was organised at the collectorate chaired by ADM (City) Shailendra Kumar Singh on Wednesday to discuss the upcoming ‘Bharat Bandh’ called by farmers’ unions on March 26, officials said.

    Participation in the countrywide ‘Bharat Bandh’ call given by the farmers’ unions on March 26 against the three farm laws would be optional for the traders, according to a few office-bearers.

    General Secretary of Mahanagar Vyapar Mandal Ashok Chawla told PTI that the association would remain neutral during the ‘Bharat Bandh’.

    No association would force anybody to close their shops or compel them to keep it open as traders are free to take decisions on their own, Chawla added.

    In the meeting, all the problems regarding COVID-19, ‘Bharat Bandh’ and deposition of arms licenses during panchayat elections were discussed, he further said.

  • Agri laws: NDA ally extends support to farmers; Tikait attacks Modi government again

    By PTI
    SIDDARTH NAGAR: An MLA of the Apna Dal (S), an ally of the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, came out in support of the farmers agitating against three new agriculture laws of the Centre on Wednesday and questioned why the government was adamant on implementing the legislations.

    “It seems that the government has no problem with people and farmers getting angry. It looks like the aim is not to make a handful of industrialists unhappy,” Apna Dal (S) MLA Amar Singh Chaudhary told reporters here.

    Asking why industrialists Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani got big godowns constructed in different states about a year ago, he said the people who voted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and again in the 2019 general election, with the farmers also extending support to the saffron party on the promise that their income will be doubled, are unhappy over the contentious farm laws.

    Stressing that farmers have doubts because big industrial houses have constructed godowns from Panipat in Haryana to Gujarat and they fear that their land would be taken and they will be reduced to bonded labourers, Chaudhary said the government is not doing anything to clear these doubts.

    The government and the BJP are not trustworthy, BKU president Naresh Tikait alleged on Wednesday, as he hit out at the Centre over the contentious agriculture laws.

    Tikait made the remark as he participated in a monthly meeting of his farmers’ union at Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border.

    Addressing Bharatiya Kisan Union supporters, who have been camping at Ghazipur for nearly four months now, Tikait said: “This movement will continue for long, make it a part of your routine.”

    “The government and the BJP are not trustworthy,” the farmer leader said, according to a statement issued by BKU’s national media incharge Dharmendra Malik.

    “More people like (Meghalaya Governor) Satyapal Malik will come forward. The farmers respect their truth. BJP MPs are now feeling suffocated,” Tikait said.

    ALSO READ | Republic Day violence: Court asks Delhi health secretary to constitute panel to examine X-ray report of dead farmer

    Malik had on Sunday sided with farmers protesting the Centre’s new agriculture laws and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah not to offend the community.

    Speaking at an event in his home district of Baghpat in western Uttar Pradesh, Malik had said if the Centre gave legal guarantee of the minimum support price (MSP) for crops, farmers would relent.

    “None of the laws are in favour of farmers. The country in which farmers and soldiers are not satisfied, that country cannot move ahead. That country cannot be saved. Hence, the Army and farmers should be kept satisfied,” Malik had said.

    Hundreds of farmers are camping at Delh’s borders at Ghazipur, Singhu and Tikri since November with a demand that the Centre repeal the three contentious farm laws and make a new one that would ensure legal guarantee on the MSP.

    The government, however, has held that the laws were pro-farmer.

    RLD vice president Jayant Chaudhary on Wednesday said the government has continued with its “adamant” attitude despite agitation against the three farm laws.

    ALSO READ | Farmers to intensify agitation with Bharat bandh, burning three farm laws on Holi

    Addressing a Kisan Mahapanchayat at the Kisan Bhawan at Bahedi, 50 km from Bareilly district headquarters, Chaudhary said, “The governments in the state and at the Centre have merely become a puppet in the hands of capitalists”.

    “Farmers have been agitating for a long time for withdrawal of the three agricultural bills, but the central government is adamant. The central government is working only to benefit industrialists. They want to enslave the farmers by giving their land to industrialists,” the RLD leader said.

    On the West Bengal Assembly elections, Chaudhary said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has “single-handedly shaken the entire BJP”.

    “She has also suffered injuries in her legs and has become an injured lioness who will become the chief minister again after the Assembly elections in Bengal.”

  • ‘Farmers’ protests’ may continue till December’: Tikait’s fresh warning to Modi government

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The Bhartiya Kisan Union-led farmer agitation against the three central farm laws may continue till December this year, the outfit national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait said here on Sunday. 

    Tikait made the statement while talking to reporters after his recent visit to the poll-bund West Bengal.  

    “This agitation possibly will stretch up to November or December this year,” he said.

    Talking about his Bengal visit, Tikait said during their poll campaigning there, the Centre has been asking farmers to give them one feastful of rice.

    “I have advised Bengal farmers to ask grain seekers to fix an MSP of Rs 1,850 per quintal for paddy before giving them a single grain of rice,” Tikait said.

    The farmer leader said he was not going to sit in Delhi alone but was planning to visit all over the country, including Madhya Pradesh on March 14 and 15, Ganga Nagar in Rajasthan on March 17, Ghazipur’s UP Gate border in Delhi on March 18, Odisha on March 19 and Karnataka on March 21 and 22.

    He said after Bengal, he was planning to visit other parts of the country to press for the enactment of a law guaranteeing an MSP for various crops.

    ALSO READ | ‘Businessmen running Union government’: Rakesh Tikait hits out at Centre over farm laws

    “In Bihar, the paddy is currently being bought by traders at an abysmally low rate of Rs 750 to Rs 800 per quintal. I want a law guaranteeing the minimum support price for various crops,” said the farmer leader.

    During his visit in Allahabad, Tikait also garlanded a statue of his late father and farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait at Tikait Park in Jhalwa near here.

    The BKU spokesperson claimed the three central laws will lead to the closure of all small-time neighbourhood shops, leaving only big commercial malls to survive.

    “These farm laws will ruin traders and lead to the closure of small business utilities and the collapse of small industries. These laws will bring in big multinational firms like Wallmart,” claimed Tikait.

    “Had this government belonged to a political party, it would have talked to farmers and resolved the matter,” Tikait said.

    “But this government is being run by big business houses. It is bent upon selling the entire country,” he alleged.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Protesting farmers observe ‘Pagdi Sambhal Divas’; Tikait says will gherao Parliament

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Donning traditional turbans and singing songs of the peasant movement, farmers protesting at Delhi borders against the three agri laws on Tuesday marked the “Pagdi Sambhal Divas”.

    Called by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the day-long event was inspired by the “Pagdi Sambhal Lehar” of 1906.

    “At that time also, the government had passed three anti-farmer laws against which the peasant movement started and it was successful. The unity of the farmers proves that this movement will also be successful,” an SKM statement said.

    Once turban used to be pride of the farmer, but the government has forced farmers to use turban for hanging, farmer leaders said, adding that the day was observed to “express their self-respect”.

    At the Singhu border, cultural programmes were held, which were attended by the family members of the revolutionary Bhagat Singh, including his nephew Abhay Sandhu.

    While addressing the farmers, Sandhu said he would observe a fast unto death if the government did not accept the demands of the farmers by March 23 (Bhagat Singh’s death anniversary).

    Farmers also celebrated the birth anniversary of nationalist and peasant leader Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, by recalling his role in nation building and mass movements.

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    At Tikri border, several farmers, largely from Karnataka and Telangana, arrived to join the movement.

    “The government repeatedly rejects this movement by calling it a movement of a particular area, rather this movement belongs to the farmers across the country,” the SKM statement said.

    “Pagdi Sambhal Divas” was also observed in Nandurbar in Maharashtra, and Bhiwani in Haryana.

    Thousands of farmers from different parts of the country, including Punjab and Haryana, have been protesting at multiple Delhi borders against the three farm laws, which they are afraid, will do away with the Minimum Support Price system, leaving them at the mercy of the big private corporations.

    While the government has been projecting the laws as agricultural reforms, farmers have been demanding the repeal of the three legislations.

    Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said on Tuesday that if the Centre does not repeal the three new agriculture laws, the protesting farmers will gherao Parliament.

    He appealed to farmers to be ready as the call for ‘Delhi march’ can be given at any time.

    Tikait was addressing the Kisan Mahapanchayat of United Kisan Morcha in Sikar, Rajasthan Tuesday.

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    “This time the call will be for Parliament gherao. We will announce it and then march towards Delhi. This time 40 lakh tractors will be there instead of four lakh tractors,” he said.

    Tikait said the protesting farmers would plough the parks near India Gate and grow crops there.

    Leaders of the United Front will decide the date to gherao the Parliament, he added.

    He also said there was a conspiracy to malign the country’s farmers on January 26, when violence had broken out in the national capital during their tractor parade.

    “The farmers of the country love the tricolor, but not the leaders of this country,” he said.

    Tikait said farmers are openly challenging the government that if it does not repeal all three contentious agricultural laws and does not implement the MSP, then the farmers of the country will also demolish the godowns of big companies.

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    The United Front will also give a date for this soon, he said.

    The mahapanchayat was also addressed by Swaraj movement leader Yogendra Yadav, National Vice President of All India Kisan Sabha Amra Ram, National General Secretary of Kisan Union, Chaudhary Yudhvir Singh and others.

    Earlier on Tuesday, Tikait also addressed a farmers’ gathering at Sardarshahar in Churu district.