No ‘ghar wapsi’ till farm laws are repealed: Tikait
Unions demand new laws for continuation of MSPS, release of protesters arrested in connection with January 26 violence
BHIWANI: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said on Sunday that farmers protesting at Delhi’s borders against three laws aimed at opening up agricultural trade wouldn’t go back to their villages unless the government repeals the legislation.
No ghar wapsi (return home) will take place until the farmers’ demands are met, Tikat said in the heartland of Haryana’s Jat community at a kisan mahapanchayat.
Tikait said the government should roll back the contentious farm laws, frame new legislation to assure the continuation of the minimum support price (MSP) system for farmers’ produce and release cultivators arrested in connection with the violence that broke out in the national capital during the Republic Day tractor rally .
“Yeh jan andolan hai, yeh fail nahi hoga (this is a people’s movement, this will not fail),” he added.
Tikait claimed that the campaign against the agricultural laws was going strong. Dadri MLA and chief of the Sangwan Khap, Sombir Sangwan, who in December withdrew support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-jannayak Janta Party, government of Haryana, and independent MLA, Balraj Kundu, were also present at the event.
Tens of thousands of farmers, mainly from Sikh-dominated Punjab and neighbouring Haryana, have blocked entry points into New Delhi for more than two months, demanding the repeal of the three pro-reform laws passed in September last year. Farmers say the laws will allow corporate giants to take control over a vast, antiquated agricultural sector that supports half of all Indians.
On February 3, Tikait had addressed his first “Kisan Mahapanchayat” in Jind’s Kandela.
The BKU leader from Uttar Pradesh has been camping at Ghazipur on the Delhi-uttar Pradesg border as part of a campaign by farmer unions against the central laws enacted in September. Tikait praised the local community organisations known as khap panchayats that hold considerable influence in states such as Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. “We need these khap panchayats today. You should not let anything divide you,” he said, adding that when the farmers’ protests started, attempts were made to divide farmers.
Tikait praised BKU leader from Punjab, Balbir Singh Rajewal, who was also present at Sujnhday’s event, for providing sound leadership to the protestors. “Rajewal is our elder leader, he is very wise. We will fight this battle strongly,” he said.