Farmers Movement Archive

‘Make stir part of your daily life’

Addressing a kisan panchayat of the Bhartiya Kisan Union on Tuesday at the Ghazipur protest site, BKU president Naresh Tikait once again said the Bharatiya Janata Party and the government were not worth believing. “We are in for a long haul. I want you to make the (farmers') movement part of your daily life,” said Mr. Tikait. He said more people such as 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 has said farmers should not go empty-handed from Delhi borders. The monthly meeting of BKU is held at Sisauli village in Muzaffarnagar but Mr. Tikait said as many farmers are at the border, the organisation felt that the meeting should be held at the Ghazipur site. This is the second time that such a meeting has been held at the Delhi-U.P. border, the first one in December 2020. On the plan to make concrete structures on the road, the BKU president 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.” RLD panchayat Continuing with his mass outreach programme against the contentious farm laws, Rashtriya Lok Dal 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,” he said. Addressing a kisan panchayat in Baheri area of Bareilly, Mr. Chaudhary said there was a vast difference between what this government says and what it actually does and that farmers had understood its true character. “Its impact would be seen in the forthcoming elections,” he said. The RLD leader 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, the farmers could not be saved from the corporate greed. He charged that during the lockdown, the government kept making rules that helped two private players accumulate wealth while the common men kept losing their jobs.

The Hindu

2021-03-18

Ghaziabad