After celebrating the six-month anniversary of the farmer’s protest, BKU leader Rakesh Tikait has yet again given a call to intensify the protests and called upon the protesting farmers to be ‘ready with tractors.’
On Sunday, Tikait took to Twitter suggesting that the farmers will have to escalate their protest as the Centre will not bend down to their demands. “The government will not agree. Treatment is necessary. Keep your tractors ready. We will have to intensify the protest to save our lands,” he Tweeted.
https://twitter.com/RakeshTikaitBKU/status/1406655186622427139?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwFrom announcing protests outside all the Raj Bhavans on June 26 to declaring that the protests will be on till 2024, Tikait has time and again kept the alleged farmers busy with his frivolous threats and calls.
Mahapanchayat demands clearing of Singhu Border
On the other hand, residents from several villages in Delhi and Haryana held a “Mahapanchayat” in Haryana’s Sonipat on Saturday, demanding the opening of the Singhu border, the removal of barricades put up by the so-called farmer protestors and immediate halting of violence.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1406496416793391104?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe villagers also informed that they are ready to meet the state and Central government to voice their demands.
Centre ready to talk
The Centre has yet again given a call to farmers to re-initiate talks. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar in a video Tweet has recently said, “The Government of India is ready to talk to any farmer organization and anytime on the provisions related to the new agricultural laws. We welcome them…”
https://twitter.com/nstomar/status/1405806455454801920?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwHe also suggested that they are ready to conduct a meeting even at midnight to address their grievances on the new farm laws.
Increase in crimes at protest sites
Meanwhile, there has been a sharp increase in the crime rate in and around the protest sites. We reported how a man named Mukesh (42)- resident of Kasar village in Bahadurgarh of Jhajjar district of Haryana had succumbed to burn injuries after farmer protestors allegedly set him ablaze at the Tikri border protest site on May 16.
His wife Renu in an exclusive interview to OpIndia said, “Agitators at Tikri border, they are not farmers but hardcore criminals. They are perpetually drunk and always under the influence of alcohol. It’s been a year, these people are not going from here. They have created chaos over here.”
Likewise, Tony Kumar, the Sarpanch of the village also cast doubts upon the intent of these people, who have been protesting as farmers. Expressing his trepidation after the ghastly incident, Tony Kumar said that in the past, many villagers have come to him with complaints against these protesting people. Villagers complain that these farmers go to their fields to defecate, they molest and harass the women of the village.
Several incidents of assault and molestation too have been reported from these protest sites.