With Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s decision on Thursday to repeal the three contentious
farm laws that had the farmers in western Indian agitated for nearly a year,
one might have expected for the protests to die down. However, Rakesh Tikait,
leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) and one of the leading figures of the
farmers’ protests, is not ready to end the agitation.

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Following the PM’s
announcement, Rakesh Tikait said that the farmers will only return home after
the farm laws have been repealed, which is scheduled to happen in the winter
session of Parliament that begins November 29. Tikait tweeted in Hindi, “The
protest will not be withdrawn immediately, we will wait for the day the farm
laws are repealed in Parliament. Along with MSP, the government should talk to
farmers on other issues too.”

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Rakesh Tikait, 52,
has been one of the faces of the farmers’ agitation against the three farm laws
that sought to give private players a greater hand in India’s agricultural economy
that employs, directly or indirectly, nearly 50% of the country’s populace. A
cop once, Tikait quit the police force to join the BKU in the 1990s. Pictures
of the senior leader crying went viral on social media after the farmers’
protest turned violent during Republic Day celebrations earlier this year.

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At the time, many
political pundits had called Tikait’s tears a turning point for the farmers’
agitation. Since then, Rakesh Tikait has remained in the frontline and often
used the political stage of opposition leaders to spread the word about the
farmers opposition to the agriculture laws.

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Now, when the
government has given in to their demands, Tikait wants to see the movement
through. Aside from repealing the farm laws, another key demand of protesting
farmers was to ensure a guarantee of the minimum support price (MSP) that the
government pays for farm produce.

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On Friday, Rakesh
Tikait told the media that the government needs to hold discussions with
farmers on MSP as well as other issues plaguing the agriculture sector.