Addressing a Kisan panchayat of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) on Tuesday at the Ghazipur protest site, BKU president Naresh Tikait once again said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the government were not worth believing. “We are in for a long haul. I want you to make the [farmers’] movement a part of your daily life,” said Mr. Tikait.
He appealed that more people like Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik should come in support of the farmers’ movement. “We don’t mind if he plays the role of an intermediary between the farmers and the government. He is from a farmer’s family and understands farming and the region,” said Mr. Tikait.
At a felicitation programme in Baghpat last week, Mr. Malik had said that farmers should not go empty-handed from Delhi’s borders.
The BKU’s monthly meeting is held at the Sisauli village in Muzaffarnagar but Mr. Tikait said that as many farmers are at the border, the organisation felt that the meeting should be held at the Ghazipur border. This is the second time that such a meeting has been held at the Delhi-U.P. border. The first one was in December 2020.
On the plan to make concrete structures on road, Mr. Tikait said, “We are not here to capture the road, but we have to make sure that farmers survive the summer without causing any discomfort to the locals,” he said.
RLD panchayat
Meanwhile, continuing with his mass outreach programme against the contentious farm laws, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) vice president Jayant Chaudhary said on Tuesday that the farmer would bring down this government. “If the government thinks the farmer doesn’t understand, it’s mistaken...kisan is sarkar ki eent-se-eent baja dega,” he said.
Addressing a Kisan panchayat in the Baheri area of Bareilly, Mr. Chaudhary said there was a vast difference between what this government said and what it actually did, and that farmers had understood its true character. “Its impact would be seen in the forthcoming elections,” he said.
Mr. Chaudhary reiterated that he was not against private investment in agriculture but if the government ceased to play its role of an intermediary between the two, farmers would not be saved from corporate greed.
He alleged that during the lockdown, the government had kept making rules that helped two private players accumulate wealth while common men kept losing their jobs.