Farmers Movement Archive

Use Twitter and tractor to spread protest message, says BKU leader

At a Kisan Mahapanchayat in Aligarh’s Gonda, Bharatiya Kisan Union national spokesperson Rakesh Tikait addressed the crowd and said: “2021 is the year of stir. Keep your tractors ready with tent and edibles.” He appealed to the young farmers to use “tractor and Twitter to spread the message against the farm laws”. He told the youth to use social media as “the mainstream media is being censored”. ‘Snatch your land’ He told them that there was a plan to “snatch your land”. He said, “Land is something that is dearer to a farmer than even his son. In this region, nobody passes on ownership of land to his progeny before his death. Now, companies are eyeing something that is so dear to you.” Mr. Tikait said the way corporates built godowns before the bills were passed showed that they were in the know of things. “It seems the corporates have sneaked into the PM’s office. We have to take them out,” he said. “What we are seeing right now,” Mr. Tikait said, “is not a BJP government but company raaj.” He said big retail companies would drive small shopkeepers and rural weekly markets out of business. Mr. Tikait said it would take a year to “cure” the government. “The farmer knows how to tame a wild bull.” By this winter, he hopes, the government would “regain its senses”. Responding to the attack on his convoy in the Alwar district on Friday, Mr. Tikait said they would not be scared by such attempts by the “goons of the ruling party”. He said the BKU general secretary Yudhvir Singh was picked up by the Gujarat Police when he was addressing the media. “Is it the Gujarat model? I am going to Gujarat tonight as the State is in cudgels. We have to set it free,” he said.

The Hindu

2021-04-04

Ghaziabad