Government being run by industrialists: Rakesh Tikait in Vadodara

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait targeted the BJP-led government at the Centre Monday and said industrialists were running the government in the country and it would soon lead to the “downfall” of those in power. Farmers’ land, he said, was being snatched in Gujarat and it was important to make the voice of the land tilers heard.

Tikait, who is on a two-day tour of Gujarat since Sunday to campaign against the three recently passed farm laws, visited a gurudwara at Chhani area in Vadodara with former chief minister Shankarsinh Vaghela Monday. He also paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad.

Invoking Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Tikait said Gujarat was a “land of peaceful movements”.

“Now, again the time has come to run peaceful protests to push the government to take back the new agricultural laws. The government had promised to create two crore jobs every year but has failed. So, the youth also have to come forward to join the agitation. The government is busy handing over farmers’ land to private companies and plans are already in place to ruin public companies, like Amul, where the farmers benefit from,” he said.

The BJP-led government, Tikait said, was “fearful” of protests. “Fear is spreading in the BJP because of us. Right now, the farmers’ movement is going on peacefully and the government is worried that the message is spreading. The farmers’ land is being snatched in Gujarat, just like they are being snatched all over the country. So, it is important to bring the voices of the farmers of Gujarat to the fore.”

The BKU leader, who addressed a public meet in Palanpur of Banaskantha on Sunday, had urged the youth to become a part of the agitation. “If there is no agitation, then our (farmers) lands will be snatched,” he had said.

The Kisan cell of the Gujarat Congress, he claimed, had extended support to the farmers’ agitations and a pan-Gujarat Farmers’ Rights Yatra was on the cards.