Farmers Movement Archive

‘We have never been insulted like this before’

Adopting an aggressive tone at a massive “Kisan Panchayat” in Bilari town of Moradabad on Friday, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) president Naresh Tikait said, “98% Hindus voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party but after the farmers’ protest, only 2% will be left with it.” More than the farm laws, he said, the farmers’ protest had become a fight for protecting the “dignity” of farmers. “If we let it wither away, nobody would take the name of farmers for the next 30-40 years,” he said. He said that when the government had silenced everybody, it was the BKU that had “reigned in the government”. “The government has made numerous false allegations against us in the last 78 days. I am confident people will answer them in the coming days,” Mr. Tikait said. He said that this was not the first time that farmers had protested against an incumbent government but “we have never been insulted like this before”. “We have been ridiculed as andolan jeevi , called part of a ‘ jamaat ’. Panchayat is being called a jamaat . They will have to repent for this,” he asserted. RLD panchayat Meanwhile, responding to PM Narendra Modi’s statement that the minimum support price (MSP) would remain, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) vice-president Jayant Chaudhary said on Friday, “MSP is only on paper. The MSP of paddy is Rs. 1868 [per quintal] and the rate that the farmers got this year is Rs. 1,200 [per quintal]. The same happened with soybean and mustard.” He was addressing a large gathering of farmers at Baldev in Mathura district. Reacting to the FIR lodged against him and 5,000 others in Aligarh on Wednesday, Mr. Chaudhary said, “If they [the government] would cane us, it would give us strength. There would be no compromise on pagri (dignity),” he asserted. Mr. Chaudhary said farmers wanted reforms in the APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) system but the Prime Minister, through the farm laws, was ensuring that the APMC faded away. “This kind of treatment is expected from a quack, not a doctor,” he remarked.

The Hindu

2021-02-13

Ghaziabad