NEW DELHI, Nov 1: The Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, who is leading the farmers’ agitation, on Monday gave the centre time till November 26, the day the agitators will complete one year of Delhi blockade, to repeal the three contentious farm laws. Otherwise, the farmers from across the nation will gather at Delhi protest sites in tractors and protest around Delhi would be “further intensified,” he cautioned.
November 26 would mark one year of the ongoing farmers’ protests at Delhi’s border points of Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur.
The protests are led by farmers collective Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM). Farmers’ union BKU, whose supporters are encamping at Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, is also a part of the SKM.
“The Central Government has time till November 26, after that, from November 27, farmers will reach the border at the movement sites around Delhi on tractors from villages and strengthen the tents at the movement site with solid fortifications,” Tikait, the BKU national spokesperson, tweeted in Hindi.
Hundreds of farmers are encamped at the three Delhi borders since November 2020 with a demand that the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, Farmers’ (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020 be rolled back and a new law made to guarantee MSP for crops.
The Centre, which has held 11 rounds of formal dialogues with the farmers, has maintained that the new laws are pro-farmer, while protesters claim they would be left at the mercy of corporations because of the legislations.
Tikait’s ultimatum came days after the Delhi police started removing barricades from Ghazipur and Tikri border protest sites around Delhi. Currently, the farmers are sitting on the highways at Singhu border, Tikri border, and Ghazipur border. The removal of barricades has triggered a wave of apprehension among protesting farmers of Haryana.
The senior BKU leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni on Friday had threatened to take the farmers’ march to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence if any attempt was made to remove them from the protest sites forcibly.
In a video message to the farmers later, Chaduni said, “The government has been trying to open the borders for the past many days. There is afratafri (chaos) among the people. There are talks that the government will get the roads cleared before Diwali. We would like to warn the government that it should not be mistaken.”
(Manas Dasgupta)