The National Commission for Scheduled Castes has decided to summon BKU leader Mahendra Singh Tikait for allegedly making casteist remarks against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati at a rally in Bijnore district on March 30. The Commission had issued a notice to the BKU leader on the basis of the FIR report as the district administration failed to provide the full text of Tikait's speech.
The spectre of a bloody showdown between Uttar Pradesh police and supporters of farmers leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, holed up at a village near Muzaffarnagar, loomed large on Tuesday night as he refused to surrender for allegedly making casteist remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati. The state government amassed around 10,000 policemen and paramilitary personnel around Sisoli village where Tikait is holed up along with an estimated 4,000 activists of the BKU.
Over 1.60 crore voters, including 75 lakh women, will decide the fate of 881 candidates in this phase.
The farmer leaders said they are not willing to participate in any proceedings before a committee appointed by the Supreme Court, but a formal decision on this will be taken by the Morcha.
Multiple layers of iron and cement barricades, and at least five layers of concertina wires were put up last year, and further strengthened after the January 26 violence this year during the farmers' protest against the three contentious farm laws.
Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Mahendra Singh Tikait's elder son Rakesh Tikait has been taken into custody and moved to an undisclosed location, party sources claimed on Tuesday, a day after large-scale clashes took place between his party's supporters and the police. The party sources claimed that he was arrested at the Guest House and taken to some undisclosed location. However, there was no word from the police on Rakesh Tikait's arrest.
Scores of protesting farmers from Punjab and Haryana on Saturday took out protest marches against the Centre's three farm laws even as police used a water cannon to disperse cultivators as they broke barricades at the Chandigarh-Mohali border.
As the farmers prepare to leave their protest sites on Delhi's borders on Saturday after the government repealed the farm laws and acceded to their other demands, many say they will reinstall their tents in their villages as a symbol of their long, arduous struggle.
He also urged people demonstrating against the laws across the country to observe a day-long hunger strike at their respective protest sites.
The Congress is banking on decisions like reducing electricity tariff and fuel prices, taken during current CM Charanjit Singh Channi's 111-day tenure.
He also said the government is sensitive towards farmers and is in discussion with them and their representatives to resolve their concerns.
Here are some of the key farmer leaders who fronted the protests.
The announcement made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday to repeal the three contentious farm laws is expected to bring to an end the year-long confrontation between the government and the farmers, which has left more than 700 dead in its wake.
A single judge bench of the high court, on February 10, had granted bail to Mishra who had spent four months in custody.
Asserting that the agitation against the Centre's farm laws is a people's movement that will not fail, Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait on Sunday said there will be no 'ghar wapsi' till protesting farmers' demands are met.
Tens of thousands of farmers gathered in Muzaffarnagar town on Friday to attend a mahapanchayat in support of the Bharatiya Kisan Union-led protest against the Centre's new farm laws in Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border.
One Bharatiya Kisan Union activist was killed while 22 others, including 13 policemen, were injured in the clash.
As many as 37 farmer leaders, including Rakesh Tikait, Yogendra Yadav, Darshan Pal and Gurnam Singh Chaduni, have been named in a first information report in connection with the violence during the tractor parade that left 300 police personnel injured even as two farmer unions on Wednesday withdrew from the agitation against the farm laws.
'Only then will we withdraw the agitation.'
The RLD has aligned with the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in UP and is attacking the state government on farm distress and the outstanding sugarcane dues.
According to them, these marches were a "rehearsal" for their proposed January 26 "Kisan Parade" to the national capital from different parts of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday assured farmer leaders led by Rakesh Tikait and Yudhvir Singh of support to their agitation against the new agriculture laws.
Bharatiya Janata Party member of Legislative Assembly Suresh Rana, who was arrested for his alleged role in fanning communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, was booked on Thursday under the National Security Act.
"We are here to oppose Modi's 'Mann Ki Baat'. We are registering this protest because the prime minister only says what he has to without listening to the voice of the people," Chaduni said during the protest.
Rather than lose direction with the Karnal protest, farmers decided to focus more on UP to defeat the BJP in the forthcoming assembly elections there, reports Nitin Kumar.
'It doesn't take much time for people's perception to change about a person.' 'People come and go based on people's will.' 'Nobody should forget that.'
Farmers said the government should have formed a committee of farmers and others before the laws were enacted by Parliament.
'Have you seen a situation like this anywhere before, globally or in India, where a government says, okay, we are withdrawing a law because you don't want it?'
The panchayat polls will be seen as a kind of verdict from the hinterland for Yogi Adityanath ahead of the crucial 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections.
Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the farmers who broke barricades in some places in Haryana.
Hundreds of farmers, chiefly from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, continue to encamp Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur border points of Delhi despite "a few" of them being removed after testing positive for COVID-19 and some symptomatic protesters undergoing medication.
However, the farmer bodies said they will again block the rail tracks if the government failed to resolve their issues.
BJP leaders from a dominant farming community in Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh held separate meetings on Wednesday to chalk up an outreach to members of the Jat community and caste councils (khaps) to counter the narrative against the Centre's three farm laws.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should for once express grief in Parliament over the death of around 750 farmers during the months-long anti-farm law protests at Delhi's borders, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said on Saturday.
Priyanka said the party's fight will continue till the laws are scrapped.
Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said business over hunger will not be allowed in the country and once again demanded a law on minimum support price (MSP) for crops along with the repeal of new contentious agri-marketing laws.
Farmers protesting the Centre's new agri laws will observe 'Sadbhavna Diwas' on Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary on January 30 and hold a day-long fast, farm leaders said on Friday, and asserted that their agitation will gain strength as farmers in large numbers will join them in the days ahead.
As cracks began to appear in their ongoing agitation against the agri laws, farmer unions on Wednesday cancelled their planned march to Parliament on February 1 when the Budget would be presented.
The Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and some smaller parties will contest the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls together, and an announcement in this regard would be made soon, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Tuesday.
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