Farmers Movement Archive

Ready to follow SOPs, but agitation won’t end: Tikait

Ambala As the nation recorded highest coronavirus cases in a day on Tuesday, Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait has said the protesting farmers are ready to follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the prevention of the spread of virus, but the agitation won’t end anytime soon. “Government should not think that coronavirus can end our agitation as it happened with Shaheen Bagh. It won’t end until our demands are met. We are ready to follow the guidelines,” Tikait told the media in Yamunanagar on Wednesday. He hoped that the government will accept farmers’ demands by November as the agitation on the Delhi borders will complete a year. “But we are ready to take it till 2023. We are ready to resume talks with the government,” he added. He said the main problem in the country is lack of a strong Opposition at the Centre. “Had there been strong Opposition in Parliament, need for such protests would have never arisen,” he said. Another senior peasant leader, Gurnam Singh Charuni, who also addressed union activists, said, “Government is trying to create an adverse situation like it happened during the Jat agitation in 2016.” He said at the SKM meeting, the leaders decided that the protests against the political leaders will continue but without any violence or provocation.

Hindustan Times

08-04-2021

Chandigarh