Farmers Movement Archive

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut extends support to farmers at UP Gate

Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut on Tuesday was the latest politician to criticise the heavy barricading at the Delhi-Ghaziabad border at UP Gate to prevent entry of large numbers of farmers protesting the Centre’s farm laws into the national capital.Raut, who visited the UP Gate protest site on the day, said that the government should speak to farmers and resolve the issue. “After January 26 (referring to the Republic Day clash between farmers and police in Delhi) an attempt was made to crush the protest. We thought that the people of Maharasthra should stand by them (farmers). I am not here for a political visit, but I have come here to lend support to Tikait ji (Bharatiya Kisan Union [BKU] leader Rakesh Tikait)... If such heavy roadblocks had been put at the China border, then they would not have been able to make inroads into Ladakh referring to the ongoing standoff against China that started after 20 Indian soldiers were killed at the border),” Raut told reporters. He said that his party opposed the new farm laws. “We have opposed the new farm laws from day one. We extended support to farmers of the entire country and Maharashtra chief minister and Shiv Sena chief, Uddhav Thackeray, has especially sent me here to meet Tikait ji and to say to him that we stand with him strongly. It is likely that the Uddhav sahab will also talk to him in a day or two. Ye rajnitik andolan nahi hai, ye andolan sadak ka hai aur sadak pe rahega (This is not a political agitation. It is a protest on road and will stay on roads),” he said.Tikait was shot into limelight soon after the January 26 clashes when a video of him in tears and saying that he would rather kill himself than give up on the movement went viral. Tikait is the son of late farmer leader Mahendra Singh Tikait who had famously rought Delhi to a standstill in 1988. The moment reinvigorated the farmers’ protest that had shown signs of losing some steam in the wake of the clashes. Soon, thousands of protesters arrived at the Ghaziabad border necessitating the move by the Delhi Police to barricade the border with concertina wires, concrete blocks and iron nails to puncture tractor tyres.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi while tweeting the pictures said, “Build bridges, not walls!” Even the farmers protesting on the Ghaziabad side of the border seemed infuriated with the heavy barricading. “It seems that we are standing in a different country. Generally, we see such arrangements at India-Pakistan border but this one here is unprecedented,” said Khan Chand Yadav, a farmer who had come from Dariyapur in Bulandshahr district. “If police thinks that they can control us, they are wrong. If our leaders direct us, we will demolish such barricading within minutes. But we are carrying on peaceful protest,” said Yoginder Singh, a farmer who arrived from Chapprauli in Baghpat district. “More so, we are now protesting to remove the ‘Kalank’ (blot) when some unruly elements put up a flag at the Red Fort on the Republic Day. Our protest is also to demand an inquiry and action against the culprits. Otherwise, our families have told us that we come home only when we get the blot completely removed,” he, added. Meanwhile, the Delhi police commissioner SN Shrivastava on Tuesday dismissed criticism on the multi-level barricading at various borders. “I am surprised when tractors were used on January 26 and police were attacked and barricading was broken, no on raised questions. What we did? We have just strengthened the barricades so that they should not be broken time and again,” Srivastava told reporters in Delhi. Further, with many opposition leaders visiting UP Gate and meeting Tikait after events unfolded on January 28, Rakesh Tikait has maintained that visit by politicians from opposition parties is not “political.” “They are our guest, and we welcome any guest who comes here. We are not allowing any political persons to share dais at our protest site,” he added. After the developments on January 28, many politicians have visited UP Gate site. Prominent among those were Delhi’s deputy chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Manish Sisodia, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chaudhary, UP Congress committee president Ajay Kumar Lallu and senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Deepender Hooda, while many others have already spoken to Tikait over the phone and extended help and support. The site also saw visits by Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Singh Chautala and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal.

Hindustan Times

02-02-2021

Noida