“Hum hi kisan hain, hum hi jawan hain (We are the farmers and we are the soldiers). This is going to be our slogan for the movement,” says Tikait
AGENCIES / WEB DESK
The ‘chakka jam’ protest organised by farmers in different parts of the country passed of peacefully today even as some protesters were detained in the national capital and some other places.
The protest call saw good response in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, while in other states the protests were mixed in nature.
Farmers’ unions had given a call for a three-hour nationwide ‘chakka jam’ protest (12pm to 3 pm), during which farmers would block important roads to protest against the central government’s new farm laws.
Meanwhile farmer leader Rakesh Tikait today said the protesters demanding the rollback of the contentious agri-marketing laws on Delhi’s outskirts will stay put till October 2 and there will not be any compromise on the demands.
Farmers will return home only after the government repeals the contentious legislations and make a law ensuring legal guarantee for the minimum support price (MSP), the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader said.
“We will sit here till October 2,” he added.
“Hum hi kisan hain, hum hi jawan hain (We are the farmers and we are the soldiers). This is going to be our slogan for the movement”
“If the government is understanding this, then talk to farmers. Make a law on the MSP, take back the three laws, only then will farmers return to their homes,” said Tikait, who is camping with his supporters on a stretch of the Delhi-Meerut highway since late November.
Interacting with the press, he claimed a few inputs had been received regarding some miscreants “trying to disrupt peace” during the “chakka jam” that was announced for 12 pm to 3 pm on Saturday.
“Because of these inputs, we had decided to call off the ‘chakka jam’ in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand,” the 51-year-old Tikait, credited with reviving the farmers’ stir, said.
He also urged farmers to ensure support to the movement. Neither let the numbers go down at the protest sites, nor overcrowd these, he said.
“Don’t be in any illusion. Neither the platforms nor the leaders of the protest will change. They will sow iron nails, we will sow crops,” he added.
Tikait urged farmers joining the protest at Delhi borders to bring a fistful of soil from their farmland and take back a similar amount of “mitti” of the revolution from the protest sites.