Farmers Movement Archive

Took us a year to make some understand farm laws are harmful for us: Rakesh Tikait

Bharat Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait on Monday said it took the farmers over a year to make a few people understand that the three agri-related laws were harmful for them.Addressing a massive gathering of a Kisan Mahapanchayat in Lucknow, Tikait said, "It took us over a year to make a few people realise that the new farm laws will harm farmers."Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the occasion of Gurpurab on Friday, announced the repeal of the farm laws and urged the protesters sitting along the borders of the national capital for a year to withdraw their stir.Tikait further said that besides the repealing of the three laws, there are many key issues of farmers that need to be resolved, one of which is a legal guarantee for minimum support price (MSP).Also read | Will believe agri law rollback once gazette is issued, say farmers"The Prime Minister need not say sorry. Rather he must assure the policy of MSP. They claim they have formed a committee on MSP, but this is a lie. A report of a committee in 2011 recommended that the MSP must be guaranteed. We don't want another committee. We want you to implement the recommendation of the previous committee," Tikait said.He further said the government has lied about implementing the recommendations of the Swaminathan committee. "The government is not giving employment. It is adamant to turn the country into a private mandi," he added.He said the farmers’ struggle will continue. "The government should either talk to us or our struggle will continue. If you won’t listen to us, the movement will continue against you," he added.He further said the arrest of Union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra Teni is one of the protesting farmers’ main demands. Teni’s son is in jail for his involvement in last month’s Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which at least four farmers were killed. “If Teni inaugurates a sugar mill, then the sugarcane of that mill will be sent to the DM's office.""If militants of Kashmir can come to Agra Jail, then the killer of farmers will also be sent to the same jail," he added.Tikait further said, "We don't want to make the Prime Minister of the country weak, but we want him to listen to us. If the PM does not listen to us, then the protest will continue against him.""The government must also withdraw cases against the protesting farmers," he added.

Hindustan Times

22-11-2021

India