Hummingbird News Desk
NANDIGRAM, 13 MARCH: Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) chief Rakesh Tikait on Saturday said that if protesting farmers decide, a mandi (market) will be opened outside Parliament.
“The day Samyukt Morch (farmers’ movement) decides, a new mandi will be opened at Parliament. Tractors will again enter Delhi. We have 3.5 lakh tractors and 25 lakhs farmers, the next target will be to sell crops at Parliament,” Rakesh Tikait said at a rally in Nandigram of East Midnapore.
“Till the three farm laws are not taken back and the farmers of Bengal don’t get the MSP for their crops, the farmers will not vacate the borders of Delhi,” he told the crowd.
Tikait on Saturday attended two “kisan mahapanchayat” or farmers’ conclave in Kolkata’s Bhowanipore area and Nandigram in East Midnapore and made an appeal to people to vote against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the upcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal.
Members of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of farmers’ unions protesting against the new agriculture laws, are touring the poll-bound states to campaign against the saffron party. The Nandigram Assembly seat is important as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will take on her former aide and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari in the constituency. The seat played host to the anti-farm land acquisition movement which propelled Banerjee to power in 2011.
Earlier, Tikait was received by the Trinamul Congress MP Dola Sen at the airport. Tikait then addressed the farmers along with social worker Medha Patkar in Kolkata and at Nandigram in East Medinipur district.
Alleging that the BJP-led government at the Centre is intent on breaking the backbone of the farmers and their movement, Rakesh Tikait said it is “anti-people”.
“Don’t vote for BJP. If voted to power they will give away your land to big corporates and industries and make you landless. They will hand over the country to big industrialist groups putting your livelihood at stake and in danger,” he said.
Calling the BJP a party of traitors, Tikait said, “We will remain in the side of those who oppose the BJP and those who stand with the farmers and the poor.”
He clarified that Kisan Mahapanchayat in Bengal does not mean supporting any particular non-BJP party in the state. He said, “I have not come here to ask for votes for any particular party.” We are appealing here on behalf of farmers in Bengal to start a fight against the BJP.
Referring to Nandigram, he said that this land of farmers’ movement will give a new direction to the movement against the new agricultural laws of the Center. In Delhi border, he said that the farmers are ready to continue their agitation for a long time because their morale is high.
