By sacrificing a crop, farmers will live peacefully for the next 20 years: Rakesh Tikait

While addressing a Mahapanchyat in Hisar on 17th February 2021, Indian Farmer Protest Leader Rakesh Tikait announced that if the government does not pay heed to our demands, farmers will set fire to their standing crop.

“We will not give any grain to anyone. The farmers will keep a little grain and will set fire to the standing crop”, he added. “The Government should not be under the misconception that the farmers’ movement will end in two months. We will harvest and the movement will also go on.

“The farmers have been indulging in the farming with losses for the last 70 years. If they have to sacrifice one more crop, they are ready. Even if they have to take the help of more workers to harvest crops, they will do it,” Tikait said.

Speaking about the future strategy, the BKU (Bhartiya Kisan Union) leader said that they have conducted several Panchayats in Haryana and will do the same in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat and Bengal. He added that the farmers’ movement will go to every state of India and add more farmers to the movement.

“The government wants to engage in the trade of hunger. Big companies will enter the industry of hunger and lock the grain in the vault. Will the grain be locked inside the locks of the merchant now; will the bread will be stored in a vault?” Rakesh Tikait asked thousands of farmers in the Mahapanchayat.

We always wanted the farmers of Punjab to come and join our protests. Earlier, the people of Punjab used to agitate in Chandigarh but did not agitate in union with us. Now that the Sardars (Sikh Community) have come, we won’t let them go. Such strong people have united for the first time,” he added.

It has been 90 days since the Indian farmers from various states including Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh have been protesting at the different borders of the national capital, against the newly enacted farm laws. It is one of the biggest and largest protests ever done in history. BJP-Led Indian Government is trying to convince the farmers about the benefits of these laws, however the latter are protesting against it.

Indian Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Railway Minister Piyush Goel along with other IAS officers have held 11 rounds of talks with the farmer leaders and offered key concessions and proposed amendments to its reforms. In the final round, the government even offered to suspend the implementation of its reforms for 18 months.

However, farmer leaders rejected the deferment offer and demanded nothing less than a complete repeal of all reforms. Farmers also demanded to make a law on MSP (Minimum Support Price). Farmers from western Uttar Pradesh were also worried about the non-payment of dues of the sugarcane crop for the past 12 months. According to the sources, the Uttar Pradesh government owes the sugarcane farmers around 8000 Crore.

After Republic Day Violence, farmer leaders have become cautious while protesting, as they were blamed for the violence carried out by miscreants in the guise of the Tractor Parade. On the other hand, the farmers blame Deep Siddhu, an alleged supporter of the BJP Government. The farmers also said that it was a conspiracy hatched to defame the farmers and suppress their movement.

For the past 30 days, there has been no official communication from the central government for a further meeting with farmers. Under such circumstances, the farmers’ protest seems to be gaining strength and vitality.