Release those held after R-day violence: Tikait
The BKU leader said this will pave way for a ‘good environment’ for talks with the govt
GHAZIABAD: Leaders of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) at the UP Gate protest site said Sunday that the government should consider the release of the 84 persons arrested in connection with incidents of violence that unfolded on Republic Day in Delhi, and that this will pave the way for a “good environment” for talks with the government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 30, during an all-party meeting ahead of the budget session on February 1, has said the government stands by the offer to the farmers by agriculture minister Naresh Tomar.
“If the government comes to us with a clean heart then talks will proceed smoothly. We wish that the prime minister raises the ‘jai Jawan, jai kisan’ slogan and releases the 84 arrested persons. This will create a good environment for talks. We do not wish to proceed to Delhi and will continue with our peaceful protest here,” Rakesh told media persons at UP Gate.
A day after the tractor rally on Republic Day spiralled out of control the farmer leaders had decided to postpone their February 1 march to the Parliament.
In connection with the incidents on Republic Day, the Delhi Police have filed various FIRS, some of them against farmers’ leaders. In the evening on Republic Day, Samyukt Kisan
Morcha, an umbrella body of over 40 farmer groups, had said that the protest was hijacked by people not connected to them.
Sukhbir Singh Badal meets Tikait
Ever since the emotional appeal made by Rakesh on January 28 at UP Gate, leaders from various opposition parties have been flocking to UP Gate to meet him and extend support.
On Sunday, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal, whose party pulled out of the ruling National Democratic Alliance in September last year over the issue of farm laws, visited UP Gate and extended support to the farmers.
Badal also met Rakesh. “I have come to congratulate Chaudhary Rakesh Tikait who is fighting for
the farmers. My father, Prakash Singh Badal, and Tikait’s father, Chaudhary Mahendra Singh Tikait, had fought together for the cause of farmers. I and my party extend our support to him (Rakesh) and all farmers. The PM should listen to the demands of the farmers,” Badal told reporters.
“Farmers of the entire country are fighting collectively, and I request all parties to keep aside their political differences and fight for farmers till the laws are taken back,” he added.
Concrete mix, barbed wire fencing
The officials of the Ghaziabad traffic police on Sunday said that traffic on the Delhi Meerut Expressway (DME) was stopped after multi-layered barricades
were put up by the Delhi Police.
“The Delhi Police have closed the DME. Commuters can go to Delhi through the Kaushambianand Vihar border or from Sector 62 in Noida.
Since the DME is shut, there is hardly any movement inside the jurisdiction of Ghaziabad district,” said Ramanand Kushwaha, SP (traffic).
It is for the first time at the UP Gate border since protests began that the barricades have barbed wire fencing; concrete-mix has also poured between the cement slab barriers.
When approached, there was no official response, but a Delhi Police officer, who did not want to be named, said, “Security has been tightened in view of violence on Republic Day.”
The Ghaziabad-delhi carriageway is also heavily barricaded and has been occupied by protesting farmers since December 3, 2020.
“Barricading and stoppage of internet are pressure tactics, but farmers’ position is now gaining strength after the emotional appeal by Rakesh Tikait,” said Anil Tyagi, a farmer from Muradnagar’s Asalat Nagar village in Ghaziabad.
District Magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey did not respond to calls.