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Tag: Rakesh Tikait

  • Farmers’ protest to be intensified in Purvanchal region: Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait

    By PTI

    GHAZIABAD: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Tuesday said the protest against the Centre’s three farm laws will be intensified in the Purvanchal region, which comprises parts of eastern Uttar Pradesh and western Bihar.

    He said that a ‘Kisan Mahapanchayat’ will be held in Lucknow on November 22, four days ahead of the anti-farm law protest at Delhi borders completing one year.

    The BKU is part of the farmers collective Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spearheading the campaign, particularly the demonstrations at Delhi’s three border points of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur since November 2020.

    “The Kisan Mahapanchayat on November 22 to be held in Lucknow will be historic. This Mahapanchayat of the SKM will prove to be the last nail in the coffin of the anti-farmer government and the three black laws. Now the movement of ‘Annadata’ (food providers) will intensify even in Purvanchal,” Tikait, the national spokesperson of the BKU, tweeted in Hindi.

    Hundreds of farmers are encamped at Delhi borders with a demand 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 Centre, which has held 11 rounds of formal dialogues with the farmers, has maintained that the new laws are pro-farmer, while protestors claim they would be left at the mercy of corporations because of the legislations.

  • ‘Repeal farm laws by November 26 or farmers will intensify protest’: Tikait’s ultimatum to Centre

    November 26 would mark one year of the ongoing farmers' protests at Delhi's border points of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur.

  • Administration trying to pull down protesting farmers tents, alleges Rakesh Tikait

    By ANI

    GHAZIPUR: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday warned the Centre saying that if the administration pulls down farmer’s tents at protest sites, they will set tents at police stations and District Magistrate’s offices.

    “We have come to know that the administration is trying to pull down the tents here with the help of JCB. If they do that, the farmers will set up their tents at Police stations, DM offices,” Tikait told ANI.

    Earlier in the day, he tweeted, “If there is an attempt to forcibly remove the farmers from the borders, then they will turn government offices across the country into Galla Mandi.”

    Delhi Police on Thursday night started removing barricades placed at the Tikri and Ghazipur borders where farmers were protesting against the Centre’s three farm laws.

    The stretch was shut for over 11 months ever since the farmers’ agitation started and commuters have been citing inconvenience during their travelling.

    Farmers have been protesting at different sites since November 26 last year against the three enacted farm laws: Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

    Farmer leaders and the Centre have held several rounds of talks but the impasse remains.

  • Samyukt Kisan Morcha will oppose BJP in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, says farmer leader Rakesh Tikait

    By PTI

    AGRA: Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Monday visited the family of Arun Narwar who was allegedly killed in police custody in Agra in Uttar Pradesh and demanded a compensation of Rs 40 lakh and government job to his kin.

    Speaking to reporters after meeting Narwar’s family members, Tikait said, “The state government is discriminating while giving compensation.

    “It has given compensation of Rs 40-45 lakh in Lakhimpur Kheri and Kanpur, while in Agra the government has given a compensation of Rs 10 lakh.”

    “The state government should give compensation of Rs 40 lakh to the family of Arun as well. The government should not have discriminated,” he said.

    He also demanded a government job for a member of Narwar’s family and a judicial probe into his death.

    Narwar was accused of stealing Rs 25 lakh from the Jagdishpura police station here and died in police custody after his health deteriorated during interrogation on October 19, officials had said.

    Targeting the BJP government over farm laws, Tikait said, “I will urge farmers not to vote for BJP in the upcoming assembly election. The Samyukt Kisan Morcha will oppose the BJP in state assembly elections.”

    “We will not field our candidates nor support any political party in the assembly election,” he added.

    He said their agitation against the Centre’s three farm laws will continue till the matter is resolved and added “we are also ready to talk to the central government.”

  • We have removed tents but Delhi Police has put up barricades: Rakesh Tikait after SC order to unblock roads

    By PTI

    GHAZIABAD: The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), whose supporters and office-bearers led by Rakesh Tikait are camping at Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border since November 2020, on Thursday said the barriers at the protest site have been put by the Delhi Police and not farmers.

    Tikait, the national spokesperson of the BKU, said protesters at Ghazipur have cleared the path on a service lane leading to the national capital but the Delhi Police’s barricades were still present there.

    The influential farmers’ outfit, which is part of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), also trashed reports of vacating the Ghazipur border that emerged in the wake of a Supreme Court order for ending road blockades at protest sites.

    “The protesters have removed their tents but barricades have been put by the government and the Delhi Police which are still there. The road is otherwise open. If you see, there are only barricades which have been put by the police,” Tikait told reporters.

    He said the protesters want to go to Delhi if the police lifted the blockade.

    “We have cleared our belongings but the public is suffering because of the police,” Tikait told a TV channel at UP Gate.

    Earlier, several protesters at Ghazipur were seen trying to remove the metal barricades which are chained together, and tractors parked on roads taken aside in the wake of the top court’s observation.

    BKU media in-charge Dharmendra Malik said, “By removing tents and other belongings, we have shown that it’s not the farmers who are blocking the road to Delhi.”

    He added that the protest will continue.

    “Farmers have the right to protest but they cannot keep roads blocked indefinitely. You may have a right to agitate in any manner but roads should not be blocked like this. People have the right to go on roads but it cannot be blocked,” an apex court bench of justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh said.

    The bench made the observation while hearing a public interest lawsuit by Noida resident Monicca Agarwal who complained of delays in daily commute due to the protesting farmers blocking roads.

    The court has asked farmer unions to respond to the PIL within three week.

    Hundreds of farmers have been encamping on the Delhi borders at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur since November 2020, demanding the repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee to retain minimum support price for crops.

    Key roads connecting Delhi with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have remained impacted ever since the protests began amid the continued stalemate between the Centre and protesting farmers over the central laws.

    “We respect the Supreme Court’s directive. We would also like to make it clear that it was the Delhi Police which had set up barricades at the protest site. We also demand that the Delhi Police should remove them now for public welfare,” Saurabh Upadhyay, a BKU spokesperson, told PTI.

    “Whether Delhi or Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, nowhere have farmers barricaded any roads. Farmers do not have the power to barricade roads but police do,” Upadhyay said.

    On purported pictures and videos on social media claiming removal of tents at the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (NH-9) in Ghazipur, the BKU office-bearer said earlier in the day that such reports were false rumours.

    “There is nothing like that. We have just removed one tent which was located on a service lane towards Delhi under the flyover on NH 9 at the UP Gate. The barricading put up by Delhi Police still exists on the lane,” he said.

    “Farmers are going nowhere from the border until the demands are met. The onus of removing barricades is on the police,” he added.

    Asked if farmers would continue to sit on the expressway, Upadhyay said even the Supreme Court has observed that peaceful protest is a right of citizens.

  • Cops recreate Lakhimpur crime but Tikait raps ‘red carpet arrest’

    Express News Service

    LUCKNOW: The Special Investigation Team probing the Lakhimpur Kheri violence attempted to recreate the crime scene on Thursday by taking the four accused persons, including Ashish Mishra, the son of union minister of state for Ajay Mishra Teni, to the spot where the violence took place.

    Amid heavy security arrangements, the SIT took Mishra, his close associate Ankit Das, Das’s body guard Latif and Ankit’s driver Shekhar Bharti to the spot of the crime and recreated the scene using police vehicles. Eight persons, including four farmers, had died after Mishra and others in at least two SUVs allegedly ploughed into a crowd of protesting farmers on October 3. But the farmers seem to be dissatisfied with the investigation with Bharatiya Kisan Union’s  Rakesh Tikait reiterating their demand for the dismissal of Teni. 

    “The red carpet arrest of the minister’s son, who is the main accused in the incident, has fuelled anger among the protesting farmers,” the BKU leader said near Aligarh. He claimed that the minister was influencing the SIT investigation.

    All accused cross questionedBefore taking the accused to the spot, the SIT led by DIG Upendra Agarwal brought all the accused together and cross questioned them for over an hour

  • Repeal farm laws, guarantee MSP: Rakesh Tikait says agitation will continue till all demands are met

    By PTI

    MUZAFFARNAGAR: The farmers’ agitation will continue till all demands are met, including repealing of the three farm laws and legal guarantee on minimum support price for crops, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait has said.

    Talking to reporters in Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district on Sunday evening, he said that the Centre is overlooking “the one-year long agitation of farmers in which 750 farmers have died”.

    Farmers have been protesting against the legislations at Delhi border points since their enactment in September last year and demanding these be repealed.

    Tikait claimed that farmers’ income has not increased despite the price of goods.

    The three farm laws and the BJP are “anti-farmer”, he said, claiming that the government is not ready for a dialogue to resolve the issue.

    The BJP government at the Centre only supports industrialists, he alleged.

  • PM Modi should express grief in Parliament over death of 750 farmers during protests: Rakesh Tikait

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi should for once express grief in Parliament over the death of around 750 farmers during the months-long anti-farm law protests on Delhi’s borders, Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said on Saturday.

    He slammed the BJP-led Centre over the minimum support price (MSP) issue, and alleged that the government’s assurance that the system would continue is “only on paper” and the farmers want it in reality.

    Participating in a discussion titled ‘Seeds of Wrath: Fears and Facts: How to address the farm crisis’, BJP MP Rajendra Agarwal countered Tikait alleging the protest against the three Central agri laws appeared to be politically motivated.

    At the conclave, Tikait said, “Farmers are protesting to get an appropriate procurement price for their crops. The government claims the MSP has been there, is there and shall remain in place but the farmers want that in reality and not just on papers.”

    “The protest by farmers has its entered 11th month. The government and the prime minister should for once speak in Parliament about the 750 farmers who have lost their lives during the protest,” he said.

    ALSO READ: Killing of BJP workers in Lakhimpur after car ran over farmers reaction to action says Rakesh Tikait

    The PM should express grief at the loss of the lives of farmers, said Tikait, who has been leading hundreds of BKU members and protestors at Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border since November 2020.

    However, Agarwal said Prime Minister Modi always speaks about the farmers and has spoken about them in Parliament.

    “The protest has entered its 11th month but there has been confusion about it all the time. There could be misunderstandings about the laws, but those have been debated on various platforms. The issue even reached the Supreme Court,” the Lok Sabha MP from Meerut said.

    “I want to know just one point in the laws that they have an objection to. It (the protest) therefore appears to me not motivated by the interest of farmers but political agenda or political ambitions. The protest can be linked to some political parties,” Agarwal said.

    All discussions about the laws have taken place and the Narendra Modi government is sensitive towards the farming community with a proven track record since 2014, he added.

    To a question that MSP has not been a legal guarantee during previous governments, Tikait replied that is why those parties are not in power now.

    ALSO READ: Farmers say will burn PM Modi’s effigy on Dussehra

    “In 2011, a financial committee was set up with Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, as chairman. It had recommended to the Centre that a law should be enacted guaranteeing MSP,” the BKU leader claimed.

    “Today, Modi is betraying the country over something he had recommended,” he alleged.

    Agarwal, the BJP leader from western UP, referred to Rakesh Tikait’s father Mahendra Tikait, to highlight the woes of farmers and claimed the new laws have liberated them from mandis, allowing them to sell their crops anywhere.

    Tikait, however, insisted if Agarwal could define “anywhere”.

    Hundreds of farmers are encamped at Delhi’s borders points of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur since November 2020 with a demand 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 MSP for crops.

    The protests are led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of farmers unions.

    The Centre, which has held 11 rounds of formal dialogues with the farmers, has maintained that the new laws are pro-farmer.

  • Killing of BJP workers in Lakhimpur after car ran over farmers reaction to action: Rakesh Tikait

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Saturday said that he doesn’t consider those who killed BJP workers in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri as culprits as they only reacted to SUV running over protesters.

    Eight people were killed in the violence that broke out on October 3 after an SUV allegedly ran over a group of anti-farm law protesters who were demonstrating against the visit of Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya at Tikonia-Banbirpur road in Lakhimpur Kheri.

    The dead included farmers, BJP workers and a journalist.

    “The killing of two BJP workers in Lakhimpur Kheri after a convoy of cars mowed down four farmers is a reaction to an action. I do not consider those involved in the killings as culprits,” Tikait said in reply to a question asked during a press conference here.

    Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) leader Yogendra Yadav said, “We are sad over the loss of lives, be it BJP workers or farmers. It was unfortunate and we hope justice is done.”

    Farmer leaders on Saturday demanded that Union Minister Ajay Mishra and his son be arrested in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, and said the incident was a “pre-planned conspiracy”.

    Ajay Mishra should also be removed from the government as he started this conspiracy and is also protecting the culprits in the case, Yadav alleged during the press conference here.

    He also said that the SKM on October 15, which is Dusshera, will burn the effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah to protest against the violence.

  • ‘Why so much hatred against farmers?’ Kejriwal asks PM as Tikait, SKM hit out at Centre

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday lashed out at the Centre over the death of farmers during violence in Lakhimpur Kheri and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ensure justice for the families of the victims.

    The AAP leader also demanded that the accused in the case be arrested and that Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Kumar Mishra, whose son has been named as accused in the incident, be sacked.

    Addressing a virtual press conference, he alleged that the “entire system” is trying to protect the killers of the farmers and asked the prime minister why nobody has been arrested so far in connection with the case.

    “For the last one year, farmers have been sitting on a dharna. More than 600 farmers have died so far. And then farmers are crushed and killed by mowing them down under wheels. Why is there so much hatred against the farmers,” he questioned the prime minister.

    The chief minister also asked Modi why Mishra has not yet been dismissed as Union minister of state for home affairs.

    “Every citizen of this country is today demanding justice for the farmers. The decision is in your hands,” Kejriwal said appealing to the prime minister to intervene in the matter and also visit family members of the accused.

    The entire nation wants that those accused of killing farmers be immediately arrested and Mishra be sacked from his ministerial post, he said.

    Kejriwal attacked the Uttar Pradesh government for allegedly not allowing opposition party leaders to meet the family members of the victims.

    “Pradhan mantri (prime minister) ji, on the one hand, the government is celebrating ‘Azadi Ka Mahotsav (festival of freedom)’ and on the other hand, opposition leaders are being arrested on their way to Lakhimpur.

    What type of freedom is this? The British used to take such actions,” he said.

    After initially denying permission to the leaders of political parties to reach Lakhimpur Kheri, meanwhile, the UP government allowed them to visit the district.

    AAP MP Sanjay Singh, who was under detention at Biswan in Sitapur since the early hours of Monday, travelled to Lakhimpur Kheri and met the family members of the farmers killed in the violence.

    Other AAP leaders, including Raghav Chadda and Harpal Singh, joined Singh there.

    During the visit of the AAP delegation, Kejriwal spoke to a family member of one of the farmers, who was killed in violence, over phone, and expressed his condolences and solidarity.

    “The entire nation is standing by you. All of us together will ensure that your family gets justice. You need not feel alone,” the Delhi chief minister said while speaking to a relative of the farmer killed in the violence.

    Four of the eight dead in Sunday’s violence in Lakhimpur Kheri were farmers, allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers travelling to welcome Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to an event in the area.

    The others, including BJP workers and their driver, were allegedly pulled out of the vehicles and lynched by the protesters.

    The Uttar Pradesh Police has lodged a case against Mishra’s son, Ashish, but no arrest has been made so far.

    BKU leader Rakesh Tikait on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Union minister Ajay Mishra and the arrest of all accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident, warning that a nationwide agitation will be launched if authorities failed to implement within a week the agreement made with the farmers here.

    Tikait, who is among the prominent leaders of the agitation against the Centre’s agri laws, had brokered the agreement between the authorities and the farmers on October 4 here, after which they had ended their protest and the families of the four deceased farmers had agreed to their post-mortem.

    After reaching an understanding, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar, in the presence of Tikait, had informed of the government’s decision to give Rs 45 lakh each to families of the victim farmers and set up a judicial probe under a retired High Court judge.

    “Our protest has not ended. We will wait till eight days since the agreement and if the demands are not fulfilled a nationwide agitation would be launched,” Tikait told reporters at a Gurdwara in Lakhimpur city on Wednesday.

    The deadline coincides with the 10th-day Antim-Ardas ceremony (post-death ritual) in the Sikh community.

    An FIR under section 302 of IPC (murder) has already been registered against the union minister’s son Ashish Mishra and others in the incident in Tikonia police station.

    Tikait said the pact with the government was reached after consulting the victims’ families and farmers, and everybody had expressed “satisfaction” over it.

    The Samyukta Kisan Morcha leader had reached the incident site in the wee hours on Monday, after four farmers were mowed down by an SUV when they were agitating against the visit of deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya for a function in the union minister’s native place on October 3.

    Besides the four farmers, two BJP workers, the minister’s driver and a local journalist were also killed in the violence.

    On Tuesday, Tikait visited the family of Gurvinder Singh, one of the four dead farmers, in Bahraich and backed their demand for a second post mortem which the government agreed to, and his last rites were performed this morning.

    The mortal remains of the other three farmers were cremated on Tuesday.

    “How can he (minister Mishra) remain a Union minister of Home Affairs when his own son is facing such a serious charge? ”The minister himself has been named in the FIR for his alleged role. For an unbiased probe in the matter, the Centre must sack the minister,” BKU media in-charge Dharmendra Malik told PTI.

    The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), a major participant in the protests against the three central agri laws, also demanded the arrest of the minister’s son Ashish alias Monu Mishra.

    “His son should be arrested immediately. We have asked that both these demands be met within seven days, otherwise, the BKU will stage a massive demonstration in Uttar Pradesh to seek justice,” Malik added.

    A faction of BKU workers and supporters led by their national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait is currently staying put in Lakhimpur Kheri, which has now become the epicentre of the turf war among political parties in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.

    Mishra’s son Ashish is the only named accused in the FIR lodged at the Tikoniya police station in the district.

    Besides him, 15-20 other “unidentified persons” are mentioned as accused in the FIR.

    However, the minister has refuted the allegations of his son’s involvement in the episode that took place near his native Banbirpur village.

    Meanwhile, Mishra on Wednesday attended the office in Delhi and met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the first time since a murder case was registered against his son on Sunday.

    Mishra is understood to have briefed Shah about the Sunday incident in his home district of Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh.

    he Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Wednesday warned the Centre and the UP government that it would launch a “big programme” if its demands for removal of MoS Ajay Mishra and arrest of his son were not fulfilled till the ‘antim ardas’ of farmers killed in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence.

    The SKM, which is spearheading the farmers’ protests on Delhi borders, said it will not step back from its struggle for justice in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.

    “The demands of SKM for sacking of Ajay Mishra from the Union government, arrest of his son, and resignation of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar are still pending,” the morcha said in a statement.

    “The SKM issues an ultimatum to the UP and Union governments that if these demands are not met till the ‘antim ardas’ of the martyrs, a big programme will be announced,” it said.

    Four of the eight dead in Sunday’s violence in Lakhimpur Kheri were farmers, allegedly knocked down by vehicles driven by BJP workers travelling to welcome Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya to an event in the area.

    The others, including BJP workers and their driver, were allegedly pulled out of the vehicles and lynched by the protesters.

    The Uttar Pradesh Police has lodged a case against Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra but no arrest has been made so far.

    “The SKM warns the Modi government to take immediate action against the minister, or face strong resistance. The morcha also condemns Modi’s silence on the shocking developments in Lakhimpur Kheri,” the statement said.

    The outfit lashed out at the UP government for registering a case against farmer leader Tajinder Singh Virk, who was injured in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.

    “Video clips from ground zero clearly show that Virk was attacked by the vehicle from behind when he was peacefully walking on the road, and that later, as he was bleeding and lying on the road in a dazed state, others were running to help him,” the SKM said.

    It said registering an FIR against him is a “cruel joke” and demanded that the case be withdrawn immediately.