If the Govt. is Adamant, so are Farmers, Says BKU Leader Rakesh Tikait

Lucknow: Even as the deadlock between farmers’ organisations and the Centre entered its 16th day on Friday, leaders of various farmers’ unions camping at the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border in Ghazipur and Tikri – under the aegis of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) – on Thursday announced that they would block prominent national highways and railway tracks on December 14.

The decision to block roads was taken by them soon after agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar addressed a press conference on the deadlock Farmer leaders was quoted saying that the unions hd decided to go ahead with the plan to block railway tracks after the Centre failed to repeal the laws.

Rakesh Tikait, state spokesperson of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, rejected the government proposal, saying that nothing less than the nullification of the new laws would be acceptable. “Farmers will not return until the government rolls back the legislation. If the govt is adamant, so are the farmers. Is it a dictatorship that the government won't relent?” the BKU leader told NewsClick.

Elaborating on their preparation for the coming agitation, Tikait said: “All the roads leading to Delhi will be blocked completely till the government repeals the laws. The farmers will also gherao the headquarters of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and houses and offices of all BJP MPs and MLAs. The farmers will hold protests in almost every district of Uttar Pradesh, be it west or east, and will submit memorandums to district magistrates on December 14. We have also given a call to boycott Jio. We want to use BSNL. The government should bring 3G and 4G services to BSNL,” he said.

Tikait said that the government proposal had no mention of repealing the laws; while the government would prefer an amendment, the farmers want the laws to be done away with. “We are sitting here in the freezing night not just for changes. We will end our protest only when these laws are withdrawn," he said, adding that the government was adopting every tactic to suppress the voice of the farmers and to thwart the agitation.

Farmers Sell Paddy Below MSP in UP

While the Centre continues to assure farmers that it will stand by its assurance of a Minimum Support Price – between Rs 1,868 and 1888 per quintal for paddy – farmers in Uttar Pradesh are being forced to sell their paddy at between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,100 per quintal or less.

Harinam Singh Verma, a farmer from Naubasta Kala in Lucknow, also the vice president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, Uttar Pradesh, grew paddy in his once-acre farm. He told NewsClick his produce was of fine quality and that he was expecting good rates, but the local “baniya” buyer said it wouldn’t sell for more than Rs 1,100 per quintal. “In almost every place in UP, farmers are forced to sell their paddy at Rs 1,000 to 1,100 per quintal; Rs 800 less than the Rs 1,868 per quintal MSP," said Verma who organised a sit-in protest in Lucknow and reiterated that the agitation would not be withdrawn till the three Acts were repealed.

Unhappy over not getting a satisfactory solution to their problems, Verma said, “There are lakhs of farmers who are dependent on farming but are returning from mandis disappointed after traders are paying less than what the government has fixed the rate at; even at much lower price than the government's MSP."

Echoing similar sentiments, Mukut Singh, UP general secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) said that now was the time for the farmer to unite. “The Centre has fixed the MSP for paddy at Rs 1,868 and maize at Rs 1,850 per quintal, but farmers are selling maize at Rs 900 to Rs 1,000 per quintal and paddy at Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,100,” he said.