Farmers Movement Archive

SP stands with farmers, Akhilesh Yadav assures Rakesh Tikait

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday called up farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and assured him of his party’s support to their agitation against the farm laws. He also enquired about Tikait’s health following reports that he was unwell since Thursday evening. Tikait is leading the farmer agitation on UP-Delhi border at Ghazipur and had managed to reach out to farmers across the state and beyond with his emotional statements. Talking to news channels on Thursday evening, a teary-eyed Tikait had announced he was ready to “face bullets or kill himself”. He had announced that he will not drink water being provided by the government at the protest site and will only drink water brought from his village. Shortly after his telephonic talk with Tikait, SP chief said the entire country was watching how the BJP was blaming and harassing farmer leaders. “Today, the entire country is standing with farmers,” Akhilesh tweeted in Hindi. In another tweet, he accused the BJP government of trying to defeat the agitation by keeping those farmers hungry who feed the country. “Except for some BJP leaders, the rest of the country is standing with farmers. The Samajwadi Party will continue to stand firmly with the agitating farmers,” he said. On stone-pelting incident at Singhu border, where police claimed that some locals threw stones on the tents of agitating farmers on Friday afternoon, Akhilesh again took to Twitter to describe the incident as a BJP sponsored attack on farmers protesting peacefully. “BJP’s mischief-mongers have pelted stones at the farmers and their camps at Singhu border. The entire country is watching how the ruling BJP is unleashing atrocities on peaceful protesters comprising old men, women and children, only to help some corporates,” he tweeted.

The Times of India

2021-01-30

Lucknow