Farmers’ protests will continue for five years: BKU leader Rakesh Tikait

Rakesh Tikait, the Bharatiya Kisan Union leader who has been the face of farmers’ protests that has been going on for over five months now, on Friday said that their agitation against the Centre’s three farm laws can go on five years. 

The BKU leader was talking to journalists in Haryana’s Hisar, where he said that till now the farmers’ protests have been going on for five months and if they (BJP) can run the government for five years, agitation can also go on for five years. 

“If they can run the government for five years, why the agitation can’t be continued for five years? The agitation too will continue for five years,” The Indian Express quoted Rakesh Tikait saying. 

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Tikait was in Hisar to attend a dharna being held by lawyers since February 3 in support of farmers’ protest. 

The protests against the Centre’s three farm laws, which were passed in September last year, started in late Novembers after farmers from several states, majorly from Punjab and Haryana, started staying put at several border points of Delhi.

“This agitation will continue in the entire country strongly. The farmers should keep focus on their agricultural fields as well as on the agitation. They should attend the agitation like they go to their agricultural fields,” Tikait told reporters, The Indian Express quoted.

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 To resolve the situation and put an end to the farmers’ agitation, the Centre and farmer union held many talks, all of them which remained inconclusive. The talks between the two parties were halted after violence broke out at Red Fort in a tractor rally carried out by farmers on Republic Day.

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Since then, several people, including climate activist Disha Ravi and Actor Deep Sidhu, have been arrested, and some bailed, in cases related to the violence at January 26 rally.