DM Monitoring
DELHI: Rakesh Tikait, leader of Indian party Bharatiya Kisan Union that has given rise to otherwise fizzling out farmers’ protest has said Friday the protestors shall not return home until there’s a government-level agreement.
According to Indian media, Tikait has revealed plans by the farmer leaders that meetings shall be held in Prime Minister Modi’s home state Gujarat. He earlier categorically asserted there will be no ‘ghar wapsi (return home)’ unless the newly ‘anti-farmer laws’ were entirely withdrawn.
However, it is thought that his position now might have been some sort of retreat as he seemed to have caved in after government officials have been telling farmers to consider a middle-ground where repealing laws is not a condition. Tikait now says the government has to talk to farmer unions’ committee leading the protests against the laws. “This agitation will continue until the Government of India talks to the committee and arrives at an agreement,” Tikait said addressing the ‘mahapanchayat (grand session)’, adding that until this happens the farmers “will not return home”.The agitation is not limited to Punjab, Haryana or Uttar Pradesh but instead spread across India, he said.
“More mahapanchayats will be held in coming days”, he said, adding they will go to Gujarat as well.
Meanwhile, akesh Tikait, leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), one of the several farmer organizations currently holding protests at Delhi borders, is going to make his first major attempt to take the agitation against three farm laws to Maharashtra.
Tikait will hold his first kisan mahapanchayat away from North India, at Yavatmal, on February 20. The move was confirmed by BKU media in-charge Dharmendra Malik. “We have finalised the Yavatmal kisan mahapanchayat for February 20. Rakesh Tikait will address the mahapanchayat, which will be held under the banner of Sanyukta Kisan Morcha,” Malik told Indian local media.
He added, “The farmers’ agitation has been going on in several states in the north, including Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Several mahapanchayats have been held in these states. The idea behind Yavatmal mahapanchayat is to take the agitation to Maharashtra and mobilise the farmers there.” Tikait had stirred farmers’ sentiments after he broke down when the Uttar Pradesh police had stormed the Gazipur protest site with a view to evict the protesters, following the tumultuous January 26 events during the tractor rally in New Delhi. Tikait’s emotional expression to continue the sit-in despite police action had instilled fresh life into the farmers’ agitation, which many thought would peter out due to the January 26 events.
One of the major criticisms of the farmers’ stir, however, has been that it was restricted to a few North Indian states and did not have a larger impact on farmers across other parts of the country.The Yavatmal mahapanchayat’s success or failure, therefore, would be an indicator of how much solidarity farmers elsewhere have for their North Indian counterparts. Shankar Darekar, state unit chief of Rashtriya Kisan Mazdur Mahasangh, another organisation participating in the Delhi protests, said, “The programme will be held at Azad Maidan in Yavatmal, where we are expecting a crowd of about 40,000-50,000 farmers from all over the state. So far, 30 farmer organisations in the state have agreed to join the mahapanchayat and we are talking to 8-10 more organisations.”
