News Analysis India

Tag: Naresh Tikait

  • Vote for farmers, not NOTA: Tikait brothers’ pre-poll appeal ahead of UP elections

    By PTI

    NOIDA: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) president Naresh Tikait and its spokesperson Rakesh Tikait on Wednesday appealed to people to vote on farmers’ issues during the first phase of Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, beginning Thursday.

    Elections will be held in 58 assembly seats across 11 districts of western Uttar Pradesh, where the BKU, an influential farmers’ union of north India, holds a considerable sway among the farming community.

    “Not NOTA, but vote in the elections and hit the issues of farmers, I will be voting along with my family at 2 PM in Sisauli, you too join the mahayagya of democracy,” Naresh Tikait tweeted in Hindi.

    His younger brother Rakesh Tikait also put out a similar tweet except his polling booth is in Muzaffarnagar city and not in their ancestral village of Sisauli.

    Sisauli, the headquarters of the BKU, is in Muzaffarnagar district of western Uttar Pradesh.

    The BKU is part of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which had spearheaded the agitation against the now-repealed three central farm laws for over a year from November 2020.

    Rakesh Tikait, the spokesperson of the BKU, had emerged as a prominent face of the agitation and credited with reviving the agitation which had started waning post January 26, 2021 violence in Delhi.

    The Tikait brothers’ remark to “vote for farmers’ issues” assumes significance amid a much-talked about anti-BJP feeling in parts of western Uttar Pradesh in the wake of the farmers’ agitation during which over 700 people are claimed to have lost their lives.

    Naresh and Rakesh Tikait are sons of legendary farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait.

    Naresh Tikait is also the head of the Balyan Khap.

  • Lakhimpur Kheir violence: BKU chief asks BJP workers not to visit UP’s rural areas as farmers angry

    By PTI

    MUZAFFARNAGAR: Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) national president Naresh Tikait has asked BJP workers not to visit the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, saying farmers are angry over the violence that broke out in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday.

    Addressing a kisan panchayat at the BKU headquarters in Sisoli on Sunday night, he alleged that the BJP was trying to defame the farmers’ agitation by provoking violence.

    He asked the BJP workers not to visit the rural areas to avoid any untoward incident.

    The remarks came after eight people were killed on Sunday as violence erupted during a farmers’ protest, claiming the lives of both farmers and BJP workers ahead of a visit to Lakhimpur by UP Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

    Four of the dead were people in the cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome the UP minister.

    They were allegedly thrashed to death.

    The four others were farmers, officials said.

    Lakhimpur violence: FIR against MoS Ajay Mishra’s son, several other persons as Opposition hits out at BJP

    Farmer leaders had claimed that the minister’s son Ashsish Mishra was in one of the cars which they alleged knocked down some protesters who were opposing the deputy CM’s visit.

    However, Ajay Mishra said he and his son were not present at the spot as alleged by some farmer leaders and he has photo and video evidence to prove it.

    Meanwhile, irate BKU workers staged a dharna against the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday night and blocked a road in Shamli district.

    The protesters submitted a memorandum to the Shamli district magistrate demanding action against Ashsish Mishra.

  • Hike in sugarcane FRP inadequate compared to rise in petrol, diesel prices: BKU chief Naresh Tikait

    By PTI

    MUZAFFARNAGAR: Bharatiya Kisan Union national president Naresh Tikait has described the hike in the minimum price that mills have to pay to sugarcane growers by Rs 5 per quintal as “inadequate” in comparison to the rise in prices of petrol and diesel.

    The Centre on Wednesday raised the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of sugarcane by Rs 5 per quintal to Rs 290 a quintal for the 2021-22 marketing year but ruled out any immediate increase in the selling price of sugar.

    The decision was taken in the meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the decision to increase the FRP will benefit farmers as well as workers of sugar mills.

    Interacting with reporters here on Wednesday evening, Tikait said, “The hike in FRP of sugarcane is not acceptable to the farmers because it is inadequate in comparison to the rise in prices of petrol and diesel.”

    He demanded that the hike in the fair and remunerative price of sugarcane should be on par with the rise in prices of petrol, diesel and other items that farmers use to raise the crop.

    Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal has said the Centre’s decision would benefit around 5 crore sugarcane farmers and their dependents, as well as about 5 lakh workers employed in sugar mills and related ancillary activities.

  • BKU leader Naresh Tikait injured while repairing tubewell

    By PTI
    MUZAFFARNAGAR: Bharatiya Kisan Union national president Naresh Tikait sustained injuries while repairing a tubewell at home in Sisauli village here on Sunday, sources said.

    The incident took place when he was repairing the tubewell and hit his face on an iron rod.

    According to BKU sources, Tikait was rushed to a private hospital for treatment but later returned home.

    Last month, Tikait led a rally of 100 tractors from Muzaffarnagar to the protest site on the Delhi-UP border in Ghaziabad where farmers have been agitating against the Centre’s farm laws.

  • Lakhs gathering in poll-bound Bengal, farmers should not be maligned for COVID: Tikait

    Tikait also expressed his gratitude to Haryana Home and Health Minister Anil Vij who had said last week that he will soon write a letter to the Union Agriculture Minister.

  • 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 will travel to Bengal, campaign against BJP’: BKU chief Naresh Tikait dares Modi govt

    Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) president Naresh Tikait on Thursday threatened the ruling BJP that the farmers would travel to West Bengal to campaign against the party candidates.

    Tikait was talking to media persons in Ayodhya on Thursday while on his way to Basti to address a Kisan Mahapanchayat. The farmers’ leader offered prayers at Ramjanmboomi, the abode of Lord Ram, and Lord Hanuman at Hanumangarhi temple.

    “We will campaign against the BJP candidates. We will request the people of West Bengal to vote for any political party except the BJP as it wins polls on false promises,” said Takait.

    ALSO READ | Rajnath Singh a ‘caged parrot’ in Modi govt, says BKU chief Naresh Tikait

    Claiming himself to be ‘Raghuvanshi’, the lineage of Lord Ram, Tikait said that he prayed to the deities to give Prime Minister some wisdom so that better sense prevailed in him while resolving farmers’ problems by holding fresh talks. He further said that farmers would also make donations for the construction of the Ram temple.

    “We want a meaningful dialogue with the government and leaders of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha to resolve the crisis. But before that it must withdraw cases lodged against farmers,” asserted the BKU chief.

    Interestingly, for the first time in the recent past, Tikait did not put the demand of farm laws’ repeal and instead said the Modi government should amend and strike down provisions that are not in the interests of farmers.

    “If needed, the government may amend the new laws to make it pro-farmer. But there has to be total transparency,” he said.

  • Farm laws a ‘fire’ which would lead to losses: Bharatiya Kisan Union president Naresh Tikait

    By PTI
    MUZAFFARNAGAR: Bharatiya Kisan Union national president Naresh Tikait has termed farm laws a “fire” (aag) which would lead to losses and has urged the Centre to repeal them. A video of Tikait speaking to reporters in Muzaffarnagar was shared on social media on Sunday.

    ALSO READ| Will honour PM’s dignity, but also protect farmers’ self-respect: Naresh Tikait

    In the video, he said, “Repeal this bill, this is a fire. This is a fire which will lead to many losses. (iss bill ko dabaa do, yeh aag hai, yeh bahut nuksaan ki aag hai). If the laws are repealed then the government does not stand to lose anything. The bills have put on hold for one-and-half years. Accept your fault, and hold talks.”

    इब के इन्होंने गलत जगह हाथ गेर दिया। माँगे माने बिना हम मानने वाले नहीं। लाठी-गोली कुछ भी चला लो, हम सीने पै गोली खाएंगे, पीठ दिखा के जाने वाले नहीं। इब यो किसान परिवार एकजुट हो लिया।आज बागपत महापंचायत का नज़ारा… pic.twitter.com/c76ge9RWVo
    — Naresh Tikait (@NareshTikait_) January 31, 2021

    Tikait also said, “In this government, Rajnath (Singh) jee is being humiliated (Rajnath jee ki tauheen ho rahi hai iss sarkaar mein). There is nothing in the control of our MPs, they are feeling afraid, and their sympathy is with the farmers.”

  • Will honour PM’s dignity, but also protect farmers’ self-respect: Naresh Tikait

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Farmer leader Naresh Tikait Sunday said that protesting farmers will honour the dignity of prime minister, but are also committed to protect their own self-respect, a day after Narendra Modi said his government was just a “phone call away” for talks with them.

    Tikait said the government should “release our men and prepare an environment conducive for talks”.

    “A respectful solution should be reached. We will never agree to anything under pressure,” he told PTI at the Ghazipur border between Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi had Saturday said his government’s offer on agri laws made to protesting farmers “still stands” and it was a just “phone call away” for talks, days after violence broke out in parts of the national capital on Republic Day.

    “We will honor and respect the dignity of prime minister. Farmers don’t want that the government or Parliament bows down to them,” Tikait said.

    “Will also ensure that the self-respect of farmers is protected. A middle way should be found. Talks should be held,” he added.

    During their January 26 parade, many of the protesters, driving tractors, reached the Red Fort while some of them hoisted religious flags on its domes and the flagstaff at the ramparts, where the national flag is unfurled by the prime minister on Independence Day.

    Tikait said, “The violence on January 26 was part of a conspiracy. The Tricolor is over and above everything. We will never let anyone disrespect it. It will not be tolerated,” he said.

    The Delhi Police has registered nearly 40 cases and made over 80 arrests in connection with the violence and vandalism.

    “The government should release our men and prepare an environment conducive for talks. A respectful solution should be reached. We will never agree to anything under pressure,” Tikait asserted.

    In his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast Sunday, Prime Minister Modi also referred to the Red Fort incident, saying the country was much pained at seeing the dishonour to the Tricolour on Republic Day.

  • Thousands of farmers attend ‘mahapanchayat’ in Muzaffarnagar to back BKU

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Tens of thousands of farmers gathered in Muzaffarnagar town on Friday to attend a mahapanchayat in support of the  Bharatiya Kisan Union-led protest against the Centre’s new farm laws in Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border. 

    A day after BKU leader Rakesh Tikait broke down at Ghazipur and tension spiralled amid fears that the farmers who had been camping there would be forcibly removed by the local administration, all roads in western Uttar Pradesh it seemed led to Muzaffarnagar. 

    The GIC ground near Mahaveer Chowk was packed, a sea of people congregating to back the protesters at UP Gate in Ghazipur. Hundreds of tractors with the tricolour and flags of farm unions were parked along city roads, disrupting traffic movement. 

    The GIC ground was the centrestage and scores of regional farmer leaders took the mike to back the protesters at the UP Gate in Ghazipur.  As Muzaffarnagar became the meeting point for farmers,  Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh also announced support for the BKU and his son, party leader Jayant Chaudhary, participated in the mahapanchayat too.

    Singh, RLD president and former Union minister, had spoken to BKU president Naresh Tikait and spokesperson Rakesh Tikait, party vice president  Chaudhary said. “It is a matter of life and death for farmers, but do not worry. All have to stay together, united in this — this is Chaudhary saahab’s (Ajit Singh’s) message,” the RLD vice president said in a tweet in Hindi.

    The Tikait brothers, sons of legendary farm leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, are leading the BKU. Members of the group have been protesting at Ghazipur for more than two months to demand  a rollback of the contentious farm laws brought by the Centre in September year.